Immunotherapy

Patients with advanced cancers who were ineligible for trials were more likely to receive frontline immune checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy than patients with the same advanced cancers who were eligible for trials.

The toxicity profiles of PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors displayed unique characteristics when combines with other agents such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy.

A new treatment arm of a phase 2 trial examining PDS0101 plus pembrolizumab in patients with HPV-related head and neck cancers will be opened to patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor–pretreated disease.

Data investigating the predictive capabilities of high tumor mutation burden found it to be predictive of response to immune checkpoint blockade in some, but not all, types of cancers.

Compugen announced updated data surrounding the investigational therapeutic antibody, COM701, as monotherapy and in combination with nivolumab.

Recently reported results from the ongoing phase 1 TUNINTIL trial of the oncolytic virus TILT-123 show safety of this approach.

Indications for pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and atezolizumab are set for examination under the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee for indications granted accelerated approval in breast, urothelial, gastric, and liver cancers.

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, the developer of BPX-601, can now begin enrolling patients to their phase 1/2 trial again without modification to the study protocol.

The phase 3 RATIONALE 302 trial demonstrated that compared to chemotherapy, tislelizumab showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival in the intention-to-treat population of patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Though the majority of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) can be managed with corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive treatments, life-threatening and sometimes fatal events have still been reported thus revealing a need to develop measures for effective management.

Idecabtagene vicleucel yielded a clinically meaningful improvements in the quality-of-life of triple-class exposed patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

The results demonstrated preliminary evidence of monotherapy activity, encouraging efficacy in combination with the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda), and biomarker data supporting FLX475’s mechanism of action.

The researchers hypothesized “that serum PD-L1 may identify a subgroup of patients with HER2-positive [metastatic breast cancer] who may benefit the most from the addition of novel immunotherapies to trastuzumab.”

Researchers suggested these findings may assist in better selection and prioritization of immune checkpoint inhibitor agents for testing in randomized clinical trials based on phase 2 single arm randomized clinical trial results.

This study found that the addition of immunotherapy to radiotherapy was associated with improved overall survival compared with radiotherapy alone in patients with brain metastases who received definitive surgery of the primary tumor site.

The FDA granted fast track designation to the novel “switchable” CAR-T cell therapy known as CLBR001 + SWI019 for the treatment of B-cell malignancies.

This study found that among clinical trials in which patients with non-small cell lung cancer were treated with atezolizumab, multiorgan immune-related adverse events were reported in 5.4%.

The FDA accepted an investigational new drug application providing clearance to begin an open-label, single-arm phase 1 clinical trial of ATA2271, a next-generation mesothelin targeting CAR T-cell therapy.

Researchers found that in patients receiving immunotherapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma, higher microbial diversity was associated with better treatment outcomes.

A study published in Cancer found prognostic factors in patients who experienced disease progression while receiving anti-PD-1 therapy to treat advanced melanoma.

Though further research is necessary, researchers suggested that immune checkpoint inhibitors can be used as an individualized therapy in certain patients who have undergone solid organ transplantation.

A restrospective study published in JAMA Dermatology found that integrating dermatologic care into oncology practices might be associated with an increased adherence to evidence-based prophylaxis for EGFRi-associated rash.

These study findings suggest that the response rate to immune checkpoint blockade may be dependent on the strength of immune selection occurring early in tumorigenesis.

Bristol Myers Squibb announced that their phase 3 CheckMate-649 trial demonstrated superior overall survival and profession-free survival using nivolumab plus chemotherapy to treat patients with gastric and esophageal cancers.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network published a document intended for patients to understand how CAR-T cells work and what side effects are associated with the treatment.

Adjuvant immunotherapy induced improved survival compared with those who did not in patients with stage 3 melanoma, according to data from a large real-world database.

RO7198457 in combination with atezolizumab induced significant levels of neoantigen-specific immune responses with a manageable safety profile in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors.

Experts discuss the case of a 56-year-old white man who presents with multiple immune-related adverse events

A clinically applicable mathematical model was developed by researchers to predict outcomes to immunotherapy for patients with cancer previously treated with anti–CTLA-4 or anti–PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies.

Interim data from cohort B of KEYNOTE-555, a phase I trial evaluating a 400 mg every 6-week dosing regimen of pembrolizumab in patients with metastatic melanoma, demonstrated a consistent benefit-risk profile.