Immunotherapy

The designation, which will expedite the development and review of Keytruda in this space, was based on findings from an ongoing phase 2 study.

Immunotherapy – it's the buzzword of the moment. It would be difficult to imagine an area of the field generating more excitement and hope than immuno-oncology is sparking right now.

Questions persist regarding mechanisms of PD-L1 overexpression in lymphoid malignancies, patient selection, biomarkers to guide therapy and predict response, and identification of agents to use in combination with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors.

The approval is based on data from the phase 3 CheckMate-057 trial, in which second-line Opdivo reduced the risk of death by 28 percent versus docetaxel in patients with nonsquamous NSCLC.

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Marianne Davies, from Smilow Cancer Hospital, Yale School of Nursing, provides an overview of immunotherapy-related side effects that patient with lung cancer may experience.

At an 18-month analysis, the overall survival rate with the PD-1 inhibitor was 28 percent versus 13 percent with docetaxel in previously treated patients with squamous NSCLC.

These data were presented in late May at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), a gathering of nearly 30,000 oncology professionals in Chicago.

Pneumonitis, a lung inflammation, often appears months after the cancer treatment that sparked it.

Suresh S. Ramalingam, a professor of medical oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, comments on the difference in toxicities associated with immunotherapy.

While it's clear that cancer immunotherapies can be very expensive, there is help available to patients when it comes to deciding whether to take such treatments.

CURE sat down with Suresh S. Ramalingam to discuss important considerations for patients, caregivers, nurses and physicians when treatment with an immunotherapy begins.