Immuno-Oncology

Patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma continued to displayed a survival benefit with pembrolizumab at a 4-year follow-up.

In an all-randomized population of patients with advanced gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction, or esophageal adenocarcinoma, adding nivolumab to chemotherapy yielded a 21% reduction in the risk of death.

Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma experienced similar health-related quality of life scores whether they received a combination of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib or lenvatinib and placebo.

There continues to be an unmet need for effective and tolerable frontline treatments for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, according to investigators.

A decision model with a 10-year time horizon found that nivolumab plus ipilimumab was the most effective combination for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, but sunitinib was the most cost-effective approach.

For patients with head and neck cancer who cannot access full-dose checkpoint inhibitors, adding low-dose nivolumab to metronomic chemotherapy may represent an acceptable alternative treatment approach.

Adjuvant pembrolizumab demonstrated significantly better quality of life outcomes for patients with resected melanoma vs standard care.

Patients with non–small cell lung cancer who received toripalimab experienced significant improvements in progression-free survival and overall survival.

Immunotherapy has changed the face of cancer treatment, but requires appropriate irAE management to reach full potential.

The overall survival benefit associated with pembrolizumab for patients with head and neck cancer continued to be observed at a 4-year follow-up of the KEYNOTE-048 trial.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy allowed 79% of patients with early-stage I/IIA rectal cancer to pursue organ-sparing excision surgery, potentially preserving their quality of life and bowel function.

Six-year follow-up data showed an overall survival rate of 89% among patients with follicular lymphoma who received either lenalidomide plus rituximab or immunochemotherapy.

Julie Malo, CCRP, a research nurse with the University of Montreal, discusses a nurse-directed initiative examining how the gut microbiome affects immune checkpoint blockade responses in patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

Results of retrospective analysis of previously treated patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who received nivolumab in the second- and third-line showed that health-related quality of life was maintained in the real-world setting

Neoadjuvant immunotherapy starkly outperformed neoadjuvant chemotherapy in eliciting major pathological responses among patients with mismatch repair–deficient colon cancer, according to investigators.

At a median follow-up of 22.9 months, patients with platinum-refractory metastatic urothelial carcinoma achieved a median overall survival of 14.6 months with EphB4-human serum albumin plus pembrolizumab.

A study presented at the 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer explored the experiences of patients who received checkpoint inhibition therapy for non–small cell lung cancer.

Sherry Adkins, MSN, ANP-C, discusses the significance of incorporating CAR T-cell therapy regimens, such as lisocabtagene autoleucel, into earlier lines of treatment for patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma.

Kelley A. Rone, DNP, RN, ADNP-c, highlights the pivotal trials assessing the role of immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancer and what the findings may mean for oncology nurses.

Beth Sandy, MSN, CRNP, discusses some of the challenges that may be associated with molecular testing, and how oncology nurses can help play a role in ensuring that the reports are received.

In early-stage cancers, ctDNA has a role in screening, neoadjuvant monitoring, identification of molecular residual disease (MRD), molecular relapse monitoring, and early assessment of treatment response.

Arndt Vogel, MD, PhD, discusses a post-hoc analysis of the phase 3 HIMALAYA trial which found tremelimumab plus durvalumab to be superior to sorafenib in improving overall survival.

Nivolumab, whether in combination with ipilimumab or as a monotherapy, was associated with improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and melanoma-specific survival, compared with ipilimumab in advanced melanoma.

A subgroup analysis found that the addition of durvalumab to chemotherapy resulted in maintained overall survival benefit in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer, regardless of primary tumor location.

Data from the CheckMate 648 trial informed the FDA’s recent approval of 2 nivolumab combinations for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. A 1-year follow-up analysis highlighted key safety and time-to-event data surrounding immune-related toxicities.

The FDA has approved lisocabtagene maraleucel as a second-line treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma.

This year’s congress showcased strategies for communicating sensitive topics, patient experiences with immunotherapy treatments, updates in the utility of medical cannabis, and more.

A study analyzing the long-term adrenal insufficiency outcomes of patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibition therapy found that secondary insufficiency was more common than primary in this patient population.

Frontline nivolumab and ipilimumab combination therapy was associated with increased 5-year survivorship in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer—regardless of PD-L1 expression.

Relatlimab, a human LAG-3 blocking antibody, plus nivolumab, elicited superior progression-free survival in patients with advanced melanoma compared to nivolumab alone.