John N. Lukens, MD, on Advanced Melanoma: Antibiotics, Survival, and Colitis in Patients Receiving Immunotherapy
2020 ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium
John N. Lukens, MD, of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses his finding that taking antibiotics within 3 months of starting treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors may lead to inferior overall survival in patients with stage III or IV melanoma. The antibiotics were also linked to a higher incidence of severe immune-mediated colitis (Abstract 56).
Philippa G. Corrie, PhD, of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, discusses a review of 2,322 patients with metastatic melanoma receiving first-line immune checkpoint inhibitors as standard of care in England between 2014 and 2018 (Abstract 55).
Martin McCarter, MD, of the University of Colorado Denver, discusses the recent strides in surgical oncology, how the role of surgery has changed, and what lies ahead for this staple of cancer therapy.
Luis I. Ruffolo, MD, of the University of Rochester, discusses preclinical studies showing that semaphorin 4D blockade may sensitize pancreatic tumors to chemoimmunotherapy combinations (Abstract 26).
Kevin Tyan, of Kinnos, and currently a medical school student at Harvard University, discusses his study findings, which showed that patients with melanoma who are treated with immunotherapy had a significantly lower risk of developing colitis if they also took vitamin D ( Abstract 89).
Christopher B. Cole, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses findings from a phase I study of intraperitoneal monocytes activated by interferons alpha and gamma in patients with ovarian cancer. Two of 11 patients had a partial response and 5 of 11 had stable disease; ongoing efforts are exploring more immune system targets in order to increase efficacy (Abstract 1).
