Dr. Wolchok on Combining Targeted and Immunotherapies

Jedd Wolchok, MD, chief, of Melanoma and Immunotherapeutics Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center discusses combining targeted and immunotherapies.

Targeted therapies can have very high response rates producing survival benefits in the properly selected patient population. However, these responses are not always durable, says Wolchok. Immunotherapies can produce very durable responses, but the response rates are often lower than target therapies.

Combining them makes sense, says Wolchok. However there are potential issues that need to be considered.

There are strong indications that targeted therapies can have direct effects on immune cell populations, so potential overlaps between the two therpaies must be further investigated, says Wolchok.