Manish A. Shah, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses phase III findings of the KEYNOTE-590 study, which shows that, after 5 years, the use of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy improved survival with durable efficacy, compared with placebo plus chemotherapy, in patients with untreated advanced esophageal cancer (Abstract 250).
Ian Chau, MD, of The Royal Marsden Hospital, discusses an analysis from the CheckMate 648 study on quality-adjusted time without symptoms and toxicity in patients with unresectable advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Patients treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab and nivolumab plus chemotherapy compared with chemotherapy alone experienced longer quality-adjusted survival (Abstract 251).
Frank Kullmann, MD, of Germany’s Klinikum Weiden, discusses results from the ALPACA trial, which suggest a dose-reduced regimen with alternating cycles of gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine monotherapy after three induction cycles of standard gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel is feasible and associated with an overall survival comparable to that with standard treatment, as well as improved tolerability (Abstract 605).
Dominik P. Modest, MD, of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, discusses phase III study findings showing sotorasib plus panitumumab vs trifluridine/tipiracil or regorafenib benefits patients with chemorefractory metastatic colorectal cancer in terms of improved clinical outcomes and better self-reported quality of life (Abstract 10).
Ken Kato, MD, PhD, of Japan’s National Cancer Center Hospital, discusses the first comprehensive findings on biomarkers from the CheckMate 648 study. These results further corroborate the clinical efficacy of nivolumab plus chemotherapy and nivolumab plus ipilimumab in the first-line treatment of advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. According to Dr. Kato, the data suggest an overall survival benefit across multiple biomarker subgroups (Abstract 252).
Yasunobu Ishizuka, MD, of Japan’s Aichi Cancer Center, discusses study results showing that scheduling infusions of nivolumab monotherapy before mid-afternoon for patients with metastatic gastric cancer may alter treatment efficacy. Several studies have suggested that circadian rhythm is essential in immune system function, including anticancer immunity (Abstract 268).
