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June 8, 2012

Immunotherapy Shines at 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting

Once again cancer immunotherapy was in the headlines at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, proving that immunotherapy is being seen as another valueable treatment option in the fight against cancer. As cancer immunotherapies become more widely studied and clinically applied, it's becoming more important that SITC proactively increase our presence at the ASCO Annual Meeting to provide training and education to ensure effective translation of cancer immunotherapy advances to the clinical arena. Here are a few SITC highlights and newsworthy sessions from the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting:

SITC Primer at ASCO 

This year for the first time, SITC expanded it educational offerings and hosted a cancer immunotherapy primer on Friday, June 1, leading into the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting.  Approximately 103 clinicians, researchers, students, post-doctoral fellows, allied health professionals, patient advocates, and industry partners took part in the SITC Primer
on Tumor Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy™ From
Biology to Treatment.  This half day educational program featured discussions and lectures by leaders in the field to provide a framework of basic to advanced immunology principles and an understanding of how these concepts translate into the clinic and fit together to create positive patient outcomes.

Feedback from those who attended the SITC cancer immunotherapy  primer was very positive, with attendes saying this was "an excellant program" and that SITC should continue to host this cancer immunotherapy primer at future ASCO Annual Meetings.

SITC Leaders Publish Landmark Studies on New Cancer Immunotherapeutics

Clinical activity of two cancer immunotherapeutic agents, anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 were reported Saturday, June 2 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 48th Annual Meeting. The data on anti-PD-1 was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and featured in four oral presentations at the ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract # 2509, 4505, 7509 and 8507). Additionally, abstracts from the NSCLC cohort (Abstract # 7509) and the melanoma cohort (Abstract #8507) of study 003 were chosen for the Best of ASCO® educational program. Objective response rates (ORs) across dose cohorts, as measured by standard RECIST criteria, ranged from 6% to 32% in NSCLC, 19% to 41% in metastatic melanoma and 24% to 31% in RCC. Most responses were durable.

“This Phase 1 study of anti-PD-1 showed clinical activity across RCC, metastatic melanoma and NSCLC. This is a paradigm shift in terms of generalizing mechanisms of immune regulation which can be manipulated for treatment and are common to numerous cancers,” said Dr. F. Stephen Hodi, from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, who was involved in the clinical trials and is a member of the SITC Board of Directors.

Data on a second investigational immunotherapy from Bristol-Myers Squibb, anti-PD-L1 (BMS-936559), were also published today in the New England Journal of Medicine and featured in an oral presentation at ASCO (Abstract # 2510). BMS-936559 is fully-human antibody that targets one of the immunosuppressive ligands for PD-1, PD-L1, which is often expressed on tumor, stromal and immune cells.

“This is strong evidence that continued bi-directional translational research has identified a pathway that regulates antitumor immune responses that, when targeted with an appropriate agent, is leading to continued benefit," said Dr. Thomas Gajewski, from the University of Chicago and President of SITC. “This is a paradigm that needs to be continued and one that SITC supports.” Anti-PD-L1 induced durable tumor regression and objective responses rates of 6 to 17% and prolonged stabilization of disease in patients with melanoma, NSCLC and renal cell cancer.

“These initial observations suggest that antibodies blocking PD-1 or PD-L1 are likely to provide a new benchmark for antitumor activity in immunotherapy,” reported Dr. Antoni Ribas, from UCLA and a SITC Board member, in an accompanying editorial.

Clinical Science Symposium Immune Checkpoint Strategies

The ASCO session "Clinical Science Symposium Immune Checkpoint Strategies" presented data from clinical trials with BMS antibodies that target the inhibitory T cell pathway PD-1/PD-L1. Dr. Suzanne Topalian from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, presented data from the trial with anti-PD-1 (BMS-936558), which enrolled 296 patients with metastatic cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), melanoma and renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The patients had a median age of 62, ECOG performance status of 0 or 1 and 47% of patients had received 3 or more therapies prior to treatment with anti-PD-1. Patients received doses of anti-PD-1 ranging from 0.1 mg/kg to 10 mg/kg per dose of antibody. Anti-PD-1 was associated with pneumonitis, which occurred in 4% of patients and led to 3 deaths. Other drug-related adverse events with anti-PD-1 were similar to those that were previously reported with anti-CTLA-4 (ipilimumab), which consisted of rash, diarrhea, increased liver function tests (AST/ALT) and hypothyroidism.

There were 236 evaluable patients for clinical activity with the following clinical responses: 1) In 94 patients with melanoma there were 28% objective responses (CR or PR) and 6% stable disease (greater than or equal to 24 weeks); 2) in 76 patients with NSCLC there were 18% objective responses and 7% stable disease; 3) in 33 patients with RCC there were 27% objective responses and 27% stable disease. There were no objective responses identified in 19 patients with colorectal carcinoma and 13 patients with castrate-resistant prostate cancer.

Another clinical trial that was discussed was presented by Dr. Scott Tykodi from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who spoke about data from the clinical trial with anti-PD-L1 (BMS-936559).

There were 207 patient evaluable for the trial for safety and 160 patients evaluable for clinical activity. The majority (52%) of the drug-related adverse events were grade 1/2 and 9% were grade 3/4. There were no drug related deaths. Objective responses were noted as follows: 1) 17% in 52 patients with melanoma; 2) 12% in 17 patients with RCC; 3) 10% in 49 patients with NSCLC; and 4) 6% in 17 patients with ovarian cancer. The field of immune checkpoint blockade, which originated due to work from Jim Allison’s lab showing that antibody blockade of the inhibitory T cell molecule CTLA-4 led to tumor rejection, is clearly evolving into an area with multiple effective cancer therapies based on the current data demonstrating anti-tumor activity after treatment with anti-PD-1/PD-L1.

ASCO & AACR Joint Session Highlights Cancer Immunotherapy

ASCO and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), two of the oldest and largest cancer focused member organizations, held a joint session titled "ASCO/American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Joint Session: Immunotherapy--A Strategy Whose Time Has (Finally) Come," which focused on recent developments in immunotherapy for cancer treatment. The program featured a presentation by past SITC Board Member, Carl June, MD, University of Pennsylvania, titled "Chimeric Antigen Receptors: Engineering Designer T cells for Cancer Therapy." In the presentation Dr. June discussed:

For more information about Dr. Carl June and his publications click here.

SITC Exhibits at ASCO

The SITC exhibit booth saw a large increase in traffic over years past, highlighting the heightened enthusiasm and growing interest in the field of cancer immunotherapy. At the booth SITC staff distributed information underscoring the work of SITC and its members in advancing the field of cancer immunotherapy. In addition, key messaging emphasized SITC professional resources such as online education, open access information, collaboration and networking opportunities.

Since its inception in 1984, SITC has sought to facilitate the exchange and promotion of scientific information about cancer immunotherapy.  As the leading scientific voice in the field, SITC will continue to forge relationships with all relevant stakeholders in the cancer community to facilitate the transfer of cancer immunology and immunotherapy research with the ultimate goal of improving cancer patient outcomes.