Dr. Velcheti on the Evaluation of Anti-CTLA-4 Combination Regimens in Metastatic NSCLC

Vamsidhar Velcheti, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, director, Thoracic Medical Oncology Program, NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses the evaluation of immunotherapy combination regimens for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). 

Data from the phase 3 CheckMate 9LA trial (NCT03215706) and an arm of the CheckMate 227 trial (NCT02477826) demonstrated improved responses with the dual combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy), Velcheti begins. Similarly, the phase 3 POSEIDON trial (NCT03164616) showed improved outcomes with tremelimumab (Imjudo) plus durvalumab (Infinzi) and chemotherapy, Velcheti notes.

Although the use of these novel immunotherapy-based combinations has yielded promising results, more research is needed to confirm the benefit of adding CTLA-4 inhibitors to current frontline strategies in subgroups such as patients with STK11 mutations or those who are PD-L1 negative, Velcheti concludes.