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VIDEO: Success of immune therapies in treatment of lung cancer ‘just the beginning’
The development of effective immunotherapies to treat patients with lung cancer has been impactful, but major developments will continue to arise, according to Nathan Pennell, MD, PhD, of the Taussig Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.
He discusses the recent FDA approvals of the anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) and nivolumab (Opdivo, Bristol-Myers Squibb) for second-line treatment, describing the prolonged survival rates compared with docetaxel.
Pennell covers the clinical considerations of selecting therapies, highlighting confusion around the need to test for the PD-L1 biomarker and how the recommendation might change in the future as the therapies move into front-line treatment.
Finally, he looks ahead to the future, making predictions about what the field can expect.
“There are going to be trials testing these drugs in the adjuvant setting for early-stage patients who hopefully have been cured by surgery but still have a significant chance of relapse,” Pennell said. “We’re going to start seeing combinations with CTLA-4 inhibitors … and combinations with vaccines.”