ASCO 2025 | Insights into immune checkpoint inhibitors for vulvar cancer
Oladapo Yeku, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, discusses significance of the Phase II trial (NCT04430699) results of cisplatin-sensitized radiation therapy and pembrolizumab for unresectable vulvar cancer. Primary findings showed immune checkpoint inhibitors were able to achieve longer duration of complete remission in patients with this rare cancer type. This interview took place during the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Meeting in Chicago, IL.
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Transcript
I think they’re very important. Similar to what we saw in cervical cancer, where adding immune checkpoint inhibitors helps patients stay disease-free for longer, we think this study adds to that data that there is a role for immune checkpoint inhibitors for metastatic or advanced vulvar cancer. Now because this study is rare, what you would want to do is have a randomized trial, just like what we did in cervical cancer, but the rarity of vulvar cancer makes this challenging, impossible but challenging to do and also time-consuming...
I think they’re very important. Similar to what we saw in cervical cancer, where adding immune checkpoint inhibitors helps patients stay disease-free for longer, we think this study adds to that data that there is a role for immune checkpoint inhibitors for metastatic or advanced vulvar cancer. Now because this study is rare, what you would want to do is have a randomized trial, just like what we did in cervical cancer, but the rarity of vulvar cancer makes this challenging, impossible but challenging to do and also time-consuming. We feel that this data fills in the gap between the randomized gold standard phase three we want to see and perhaps could be an option for patients who are faced with this lethal disease.
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Disclosures
Employment – Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center; Massachusetts Medical Society
Stock and Other Ownership Interests – hC Bioscience
Honoraria – Medscape
Consulting or Advisory Role – AADi; Gimv; hC Bioscience; TigaTx
Research Funding – Ascendis Pharma A/S (Inst); Avenge Bio, Inc (Inst); Compugen (Inst); Duality Biologics (Inst); GOG Foundatioj (Inst); Immunocore Limited (Inst); Merck (Inst); ProfoundBio (Inst)
Patents, Royalties, Other Intellectual Property – Dr. Yeku has a patent for MUC16 Directed Antibodies for therapeutic applications pending and a patent for Human Artificial Chromosomes for therapeutic applications pending.
Travel, Accommodations, Expenses – ASCO
