2019 ASCO-SITC Symposium: Vaccine Plus Nivolumab in Lung Cancer
Posted: Friday, March 1, 2019
Combination therapy with an allogeneic cellular vaccine (viagenpumatucel-L [HS-110]) and the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab showed activity in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a study conducted by Daniel Morgensztern, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, and colleagues from other institutions. These preliminary results were presented yesterday at the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology–Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (ASCO-SITC) Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium in San Francisco (Abstract 101).
The DURGA study focused on two cohorts of patients with advanced NSCLC: those who had not been previously treated (cohort A) and those who had received prior immunotherapy (cohort B). As of August 2018, 40 patients with adenocarcinoma and 3 patients with squamous cell carcinoma were enrolled in cohort A; 15 patients with adenocarcinoma and 3 patients with squamous cell carcinoma were enrolled in cohort B.
The objective response rate was 18.6% in cohort A and 22.0% in cohort B. In cohort A, about one-third of patients were deemed to be tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL)-high (more than 10% CD8-positive lymphocytes in the tumor stroma) and one-third were considered TIL-low. The investigators found that in cohort A, low levels of TILs seemed to be associated with better median overall survival than high levels of TILs (not reached vs. 13.8 months, P = .04), but no differences were noted based on PD-L1 status.
In terms of safety, most of the 57 patients evaluated (97%) experienced at least a single adverse event, with 64% being grade 1 or 2. Fatigue was the most common adverse event, occurring in 31% of patients; cough and diarrhea were observed in nearly 20% of patients each.
Disclosure: The study authors’ disclosure information may be found at coi.asco.org.
