VIDEO: Immunotherapy shows ‘glimmer of hope’ for certain sarcoma subtypes

CHICAGO — Gary K. Schwartz, MD, chief of hematology and oncology at Columbia University Medical Center, evaluates how immunotherapy can treat the various subtypes of sarcomas at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

Overall, pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) failed to improve response rates or PFS in patients with sarcoma; however, it did show benefit within certain disease subtypes. For instance, patients with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma and dedifferentiated liposarcoma demonstrated partial responses that were durable over time, Schwartz said.

“The key thing for sarcoma is understanding the science behind the immunotherapy, and why every sarcoma subtype does not respond,” Schwartz said. “Why do some sarcoma subtypes respond more than others? How can we enrich populations to really get the most benefit out of this class of drugs so patients can ultimately benefit?”

Greater understanding of the tumor microenvironment and factors that regulate the immune cells in sarcoma will help answer these questions, Schwartz said. Further, researchers are evaluating new biomarkers that may predict which subsets of patients are most likely to respond.

“Now I do see a glimmer of hope,” Schwartz said. “We have subtypes where there may be responses. We have the tissue now to analyze these responses and try to dissect them apart further between responders and nonresponders. Once we understand that science, we can then take these data and begin to apply them to medical oncology.”