ASCO 2017 | Combination immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancers: highlights from ASCO 2017

Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau, MD, PhD of the Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashvile, TN, talks about some of the highlights in combination immunotherapy for gastrointestinal cancers presented at ASCO 2017. One of the presentations on combination immunotherapy, looked at the PD1 inhibitor pembrolizumab with pazopanib, a drug commonly used in renal cell cancer. He explains that interesting results have been found in terms of response.
Another interesting session looked at how T-cell responses can be made more active. Drugs like OX40 and gitar in combination with with PD1 or PDL1 inhibitor have presented encouraging results in terms of response as both a single agent but more importantly in combination with no added toxicity.
Dr Arkenau explains that as research goes on, it will be very interesting to understand the T-cell modulation and how we can activate T-cells and the immune response better, and also if we can revert secondary resistance to immunotherapy. One of the big topics presented at ASCO 2017 was on how to understand secondary resistance and how can we combine immunotherapy combinations more strategically.
Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2017 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL