Dr. Tewari on the Promise of Immunotherapy in Cervical Cancer

Krishnansu Tewari, MD, associate professor, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of California, Irvine, discusses the promise of immunotherapy in cervical cancer.

Tewari says that using immunotherapy as a treatment for patients with cervical cancer scientifically makes sense. The mutational burden of cervical cancer is similar to that of other solid tumors that have experienced success with checkpoint inhibitors. Specifically, patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung, adenocarcinoma of the lung, head and neck cancer, and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) have all demonstrated benefit.

The ongoing open-label, multinational, randomized, phase III trial (GOG 3016/ENGOT-cx9) of cemiplimab versus investigator’s choice chemotherapy in previously treated patients with metastatic cervical cancer is aiming to address the impact of immunotherapy in this disease. Cemiplimab has previously shown promise is CSCC, and Tewari is confident that it will have an impact in cervical cancer as well. This PD-1 inhibitor was granted priority review by the FDA in April 2018 for the treatment of patients with metastatic CSCC.