Articles related to IMMUNOTHERAPY

Publication: JAMA OncologyMethod: Retrospective study of 160 adults with hematologic malignant disease who were vaccinated with 1 of 3 COVID-19 vaccines (February through April 2021).Results: Patients receiving B-cell-depleting immunotherapy may not gain adequate protection from vaccination and may still develop a potentially fatal infection.

An update from the original ASCO guideline on this topic published in 2012, 60 studies, primarily retrospective, were included in the review. New to this version of the guideline, the Panel offers recommendations on approved doses of immunotherapy and targeted therapies that can be offered to obese patients with cancer.

The results of the trial, known as the RELATIVITY-047 study, were presented at the virtual ASCO Annual Meeting that took place June 4-8, 2021. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Investigators who co-led the study were thrilled to present that, despite PD-1 blocker nivolumab revolutionizing the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma, this fixed-dose combination of nivolumab and LAG-3 target relatlimab holds the cancer in check significantly longer than nivolumab alone.

In this JAMA Original Investigation, the researchers studied 19,529 patients with Medicare coverage who initiated first systemic therapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using 1 of 4 regimens of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy, cytotoxic chemotherapy, and combined chemoimmunotherapy. The goal? To gauge the uptake and effectiveness of immunotherapy among older patients outside clinical trials.

From the pages of Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology comes this Q&A with Jennifer A. Woyach, MD, a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Woyach provides extensive commentary on BTK, BCL2, and PI3K inhibitors, FCR usage, and the importance of clinical trials when treating patients with CLL.

Published in Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology, this article presents an overview of the currently available monoclonal antibody treatments in multiple myeloma (MM), discussing  the clinical value, significant potential, and possible limitations of these immunotherapeutic approaches to driving deeper responses and achieving longer overall survival among patients with a challenging disease.