A recent study identified an increasing inclusion rate of individuals with HIV in clinical trials of anti–programmed cell death protein 1 and anti–programmed death ligand 1 (anti–PD-1/PD-L1) therapy for patients with cancer, in accordance with efforts of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the National Cancer Institute. "Anti–PD-1 and anti–PD-L1 immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) constitutes the therapeutic backbone for multiple malignant neoplasms," write the authors, led by Josh...
In patients with previously treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), atezolizumab increases overall survival compared with docetaxel, regardless of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) status, histology, and subsequent immunotherapy, according to a new study published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. "In clinical trials conducted with immunotherapy, the benefit to patients is usually sustained over time," write the investigators, led by first author Julien Mazieres, MD, PhD, Professor of Res...
The FDA recently approved nivolumab/ipilimumab for the first-line treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma, marking the second FDA approval for this condition and the first approval in the past 16 years. In this interview, Paul Baas, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the CheckMate 743 trial (NCT02899299), on which the approval was based, speaks with Oncology Data Advisor about the benefits and tolerability of nivolumab/ipilimumab, ongoing research advances in the treatment of malignant pleur...
PembrolizumabThe FDA has now expanded the approved indications for pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA®, Merck Sharp & Dohme) to include both adult patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) and pediatric patients with refractory cHL, or cHL that has relapsed after two or more lines of therapy. The approval was based on efficacy data from the open-label phase 3 KEYNOTE-204 trial (NCT02684292), for which 304 adult patients with cHL previously treated with at least one multiagen...
In advanced gastric cancer and gastroesophageal junction cancer, treatment options remain limited. Results of the phase 3 CheckMate 649 and phase 2/3 ATTRACTION-4 studies, both of which investigated chemotherapy with or without nivolumab in patients with previously untreated unresectable, advanced, or recurrent gastric/gastroesophageal junction (G/GEJ) cancer, were recently presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020. CheckMate 649 reported significant impr...