IMMUNOTHERAPY

SITC addresses the crucial value of cancer immunotherapy in discussions in a Value of Cancer Immunotherapy Summit. 

While mouse models have historically been helpful in the research of immunotherapies, genetic testing and clinical models may play a role in the near future.&nbsp;These pre-clinical models have been criticized for some of their limitations, but Marcus Bosenberg, MD, PhD, confirms their current relevance and clinical applicability.<br /> &nbsp;

The FDA has granted a priority review to a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for use as a treatment for patients with refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma.

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has announced that it will honor the late David Grimwade, PhD, with the 2016 Exemplary Service Award.

The PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab was successfully combined with radiotherapy alone or concurrently with temozolomide for patients with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme in cohorts 1c and 1d from the phase I CheckMate-143 study.&nbsp;

Treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor elicited a durable clinical benefit rate of 28% along with a manageable safety profile for patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme that expressed PD-L1 on &ge;1% of cells.

Martin van den Bent, MD, Erasmus MC Cancer Center, discusses the results from the ABT-414 trial for patients with brain cancer.&nbsp;

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, FACS discusses the abstracts chosen for presentation during the Presidential Session of the SITC 31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs.&nbsp;

A number of new clinical and pre-clinical agents currently in development were explored during the SITC 31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs.&nbsp;

Treatment with the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab at selected doses led to a high response rate and marked improvements in overall survival ​for patients with pretreated metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Treatment with pembrolizumab improved overall survival by 2.9 months compared with chemotherapy for patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma whose disease progressed after prior treatment.

Sonja Althammer, PhD, Team Leader Bioinformatics at Definiens, discusses a study looking to define a subgroup of patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer who respond best to treatment with the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab.

Though surgical resection and radiation therapy remain at the forefront of the treatment for localized disease, accurately predicting outcomes for individual patients remains a challenge, which radiomics, an emerging research field, hopes to alleviate.

The CheckPoints, which are considered the official house band of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), performs every year at the annual meeting, as well as at a SITC sponsored event at the ASCO annual meeting each year.

A new immune checkpoint called PVRIG has emerged as a ripe target for anticancer therapy in solid tumors and an antibody that blocks its ability to suppress an antitumor response is in development.<br /> &nbsp;

Pembrolizumab plus low dose metronomic cyclophosphamide demonstrated limited patient benefit in adult patients with diverse types of unresectable locally advanced or metastatic sarcoma.<br /> &nbsp;

Elizabeth Loggers, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, discusses the role that she expects immunotherapy will play in the future treatment landscape of sarcoma.

Clinical benefit, including partial response and stable disease, was observed in 11 of 20 patients with relapsed metastatic sarcoma following nivolumab treatment that was administered either alone or in combination with pazopanib.

Omid Hamid, MD, chief, Translational Research and Immunotherapy, director, Melanoma Therapeutics, discusses current and emerging immunotherapeutic strategies in the field of melanoma during an interview at the 34th Annual Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium^TM.

Updated results of the multicenter phase II study SARC028 demonstrate both a favorable safety profile as well as encouraging efficacy for the use pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a treatment for patients with advanced sarcomas.

The PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab extended overall survival versus placebo for patients who were refractory or intolerant to standard therapy&nbsp;with unresectable, advanced, or recurrent gastric cancer, according to topline data from the phase III ONO-4538-12 trial.

Treatment with pembrolizumab, an immunotherapeutic agent approved in melanoma, lung, and head and neck cancer, and which is undergoing investigation in several other cancer types, reduced the size of tumors in patients with a specific soft tissue sarcoma.

The FDA has approved the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab as a treatment for patients with metastatic or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck following progression on platinum-based therapy.

Immune checkpoint inhibitor development is progressing as treatments for patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, with a number of studies currently assessing new combination strategies.

Studies testing immune checkpoint inhibitors in combination with other agents for the treatment of both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma are garnering attention among researchers.