Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD

THE DISCUSSANT of the abstract was Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, Cancer Center Deputy Director, Chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology, and Executive Director of the Center for Immunotherapy, at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York. He emphasized the large number of patients with breast cancer who could potentially bene.it from this therapy if the results prove to be positive.

“Although there appears to be no significant difference in the degree of recurrence for the intention-to-treat analysis, in the triple-negative population, just 7.5% of patients receiving the vaccine with trastuzumab had recurrence vs 26.7% of patients receiving trastuzumab alone,” said Dr. Odunsi. “The strength of this study includes the fact that there have been previous, robust preclinical studies that indicate in vivo induction of antigen-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response.”

Dr. Odunsi also noted that investigators may want to consider other adjuvant therapies outside of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and conduct biomarker analyses to ascertain the mechanisms of failure. ■

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Odunsi has received research funding from AstraZeneca and Tesaro Pharma; is an advisor for Immunovaccine, Geneos, Unleash Immuno-Oncolytics, Truvax, and Merck; and is Co-Founder of Tactiva Therapeutics.