Because most patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) present with extensive-stage disease—in which the cancer has spread to both lungs or throughout the body—survival rates are poor, and there is a need to develop alternative treatments to improve outcomes. In their study now published in The Lancet, Luis Paz-Ares, MD, and colleagues found that in patients with extensive-stage SCLC (ES-SCLC), the addition of the immunotherapy drug durvalumab to a chemotherapy regimen of platinum/etoposide si...

The phase 3 CASPIAN trial reports that adding durvalumab (Imfinzi®, AstraZeneca) to etoposide and a platinum therapy improves overall survival in patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). Many patients with small-cell lung cancer do not receive a diagnosis until after their disease has already reached the extensive stage, at which point the prognosis is poor. Because immunotherapy has shown some activity in ES-SCLC, the researchers of the CASPIAN trial assessed the efficacy...

​ Many patients with cancer experience infections requiring treatment. However, David Pinato, MD, MRes, PhD, and colleagues recently found that in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), melanoma, and other tumor types, broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment administered within 30 days prior to the commencement of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy dramatically worsened overall survival (2 vs 26 months) and increased the risk of treatment-refractory disease . In this interview with i3 He...

An observational study reports that broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment administered within 30 days prior to the commencement of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy dramatically worsens overall survival and increases the risk of treatment-refractory disease. Published in JAMA Oncology , the prospective cohort study conducted at two tertiary academic referral centers enrolled 196 patients with cancer receiving immune checkpoint therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (119 patients), melanoma (38 p...

​ Unlike that of other gynecological malignancies, the etiology of cervical cancer is the human papillomavirus (HPV). This fact plays a role in how cervical cancer is perceived as immunogenic: T cells themselves are involved in the immune response and in the control of viral infections and the development of these tumors. In this discussion with i3 Health, Bradley Monk, MD, FACS, FACOG, Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Arizona and Creighton University, and Ramez Eskander, M...