Stephen M. Ansell, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses integrating immune checkpoint inhibitors, improving efficacy, and reducing toxicity when treating blood cancers.
James L. Gulley, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses combined treatment approaches showing early evidence of clinical activity: agents such as vaccines or PARP inhibitors that can initiate an immune response, paired with agents such as checkpoint inhibitors that can facilitate the activity of tumor-directed immune cells.
Kristen Fousek, PhD Candidate at Baylor College of Medicine, discusses her preclinical work on targeting CD19-negative relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, using CAR T cells that target three antigens simultaneously, a technique that addresses the growing problem of relapse (Abstract 121).
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of the Yale School of Medicine, summarizes a session that included discussion of the mechanisms of immunotherapies, biomarkers for activity of these agents, overcoming resistance, and using treatment combinations.
Jeffrey M. Lemons, MD, of the University of Chicago, discusses early safety and efficacy findings from a small study on pembrolizumab and multiorgan-site ablative stereotactic body radiotherapy in patients with advanced solid tumors (Abstract 20).
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of the City of Hope, discusses immunotherapy as a front-line treatment for kidney cancer and the strategy of VEGF blockade with immunotherapy, which is emerging as a possible treatment modality.
