Benjamin Cooper, MD, Remarks on Future Analyses of TAK-676 Plus Pembrolizumab in Solid Tumors Undergoing Radiation

Benjamin Cooper, MD, a radiation oncologist and director of Proton Therapy Services at NYU Langone Health, spoke with CancerNetwork® at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting about TAK-676 plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda) after radiation for patients with non–small cell lung, triple-negative breast, and squamous cell head and neck cancer. In this phase 1 trial in progress (NCT04879849), Cooper noted his desire to investigate this protocol in patients with oligometastatic cancer.

Transcript:

The interesting part about this trial is the addition of radiation therapy. If this is a positive result and we can show the safety of combining radiation therapy, checkpoint inhibition, and sting agonists, we will hopefully be able to expand this to other indications such as oligoprogression, potentially other oligometastatic cases, and even other tumor types.

We hope that people are interested in this trial and that we can help generate some patient interest so we can determine the appropriate dose of this drug. By looking at some of the correlative biomarkers, we’ll find any other new pathways or new approaches to help these patients with progressing cancer.

Reference

Cooper BT, Chmura SJ, Luke JJ, et al. TAK-676 in combination with pembrolizumab after radiation therapy in patients (pts) with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), or squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN): Phase 1 study design. J Clin Oncol. 2022;40(suppl 17):TPS2698. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2022.40.16_suppl.TPS2698