Immunotherapy

The combination of the immunotherapies Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab) sparked a response in nearly half of asymptomatic patients with melanoma brain metastases who had not received prior local therapy to the brain.

The longest response rate lasted six months.

Although chemotherapy has been used to treat patients with Merkel cell carcinoma, immunotherapy agents show great promise, according to findings presented at the 2017 World Congress of Melanoma.

A number of patients with lung cancer have benefitted from immunotherapy agents, and researchers in the field are excited that these treatments will continue to improve the field.

David Reardon, M.D., clinical director at the Center for Neuro-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, breaks down a common misconception that many people have about glioblastoma (GBM).

Yania Jansen, surgical trainee at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Brussels, Belgium, discusses the possibility of stopping treatment with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for patients with melanoma.

Immunotherapy agents are promising in the treatment of cancer, but also come with some awful side effects.

The immunotherapy agent Keytruda (pembrolizumab) had an overall response rate (ORR) of 33 percent in a recent trial including patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Findings of the phase 1b KEYNOTE-028 trial were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

David R. Gandara, M.D., discusses the latest immunotherapy advances in lung cancer, as well as the next steps toward optimizing the use of these agents.