“It is very good to have a drug for patients who are smokers and former smokers. The antibody works in both adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, and is already very active in phase I with very few side effects. This is such impressive data that [perhaps] we could leap directly to a phase III trial,” said Paul Baas, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, formal discussant of this abstract.

Many questions remain, he continued. How does this drug differ from the anti–PD-1 antibodies? How long should we give this treatment? How effective is it in combination, perhaps with a vaccine? “We will have to find out the answers to these questions. It’s a matter for time for the studies to be done,” Dr. Baas said. ■

Disclosure: Dr. Baas reported no potential conflicts of interest.