David Reardon, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses phase I/II results from the EOGBM1-18/ROSALIE study, which showed the EO2401 vaccine plus nivolumab generated systemic immune responses correlating with efficacy in patients with recurrent glioblastoma. Adding bevacizumab to this combination appeared to improve efficacy. (Abstract 642).
Sumanta Pal, MD, of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase I results from the COBALT-RCC study, a first-in-human clinical trial exploring CD70 CAR T-cell therapy in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma. The agent appeared to show an excellent safety profile with no unexpected toxicities and antitumor activity. One durable complete response is the first to be achieved with allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory solid tumors, offering proof of concept for further exploration of CD70-targeted CAR T cells in renal cell and other CD70-positive malignancies (Abstract 558).
Saman Maleki, PhD, of Canada’s Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute, discusses modifying the gut microbiome in patients with advanced melanoma to induce a response to anti–PD-1 therapy and potentially reduce primary resistance to immunotherapy. A fecal microbiota transplant from healthy donors before treatment appears to be beneficial (Abstract 614).
Wade T. Iams, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses phase II efficacy results from the first-line non–small cell lung cancer cohort of the TACTI-002 study. The results suggest that when combined with pembrolizumab, eftilagimod alpha yielded encouraging efficacy across all PD-L1 levels, including patients with PD-L1 low and PD-L1 negative disease (Abstract 1470).
Michael A. Postow, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses new findings on the correlation between CD8 cell PET imaging with zirconium-89–crefmirlimab berdoxam and CD8 cell immunohistochemistry in patients with advanced cancer receiving immunotherapy. Noninvasive CD8 PET scanning with crefmirlimab berdoxam permits whole-patient, longitudinal CD8 assessment, which is currently under investigation as a biomarker for immunotherapy responsiveness and may be a useful tool for immunotherapy development and clinical management (Abstract 1472).
Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses “immunity hubs” that interact with a reservoir of stem-like CD8 T cells and appear to be associated with subsequent response to anti–PD-1 blockade in patients with non–small cell lung cancer. Hybrid hubs, Dr. Chen says, are a favorable class of immunity hub notable for CD8-positive and TCF7-positive cells, as well as CCL19 expression (Abstract 956).
