Dr. Rischin Discusses Role of Cemiplimab in Cervical Cancer

Danny Rischin, MD, director, Division of Cancer Medicine, head, Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses the role of cemiplimab (Libtayo) in the treatment of patients with cervical cancer.

A study presented at the 2018 ESMO Congress evaluated the use of cemiplimab, an anti—PD-1 monoclonal antibody, in multiple expansion cohorts. Two of the cohorts included patients with advanced or recurrent cervical cancer. One of these cohorts assessed the use of cemiplimab monotherapy in this population, while the other looked at cemiplimab with hypofractionated radiotherapy.

Patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer resistant to platinum and taxane doublet chemotherapy were given cemiplimab at 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks for up to 48 weeks. Patients who were randomized to the combination also received radiotherapy at 3 times per week, starting 1 week after the first dose of cemiplimab.

Results from the open-label, international, phase I GOG 3016/ENGOT-cx 9 study (NCT03257267), showed an investigator-assessed overall response rate (ORR) of 10% in the 2 10-patient cohorts treated with the immunotherapy agent; the disease control rate in both cohorts were 20%. The median time to response for those who received cemiplimab monotherapy was 1.84 months versus 1.77 months in those who were given the combination.