Review on Highlights of the ASCO 2014 conference: "Building Bridges to Conquer Cancer"

CAMBRIDGE, U.K. - July 4, 2014 - PRLog -- Immunotherapies were a highlight of the ASCO 2014 meeting. Several late stage clinical trials results were reported for therapies targeting the PD-1 PD-L1 pathway including pembrolizumab (Merck), nivolimumab (BMS) MPDL3280A (Roche), pidilizumab (Curetech) , MEDI4736 (Medimmune/AZ) and MSB-0010718C (Merck KgaA).


However, there are many other novel therapies being developed that specifically modulate the (T cell) immune system. The categories include: artificially engineered T cell receptors, oncolytic viruses, and antibody drug conjugates. Dr. Madhuri Warren, managing director at Pathology Diagnostics Ltd offered her analysis, “Many of these therapies are now in early clinical trial stage and we wait with excitement for ASCO 2015 to see if these therapies deliver the same excitement in terms of their ability to induce a dramatic response in previously resistant late stage malignancies as the PD1/PD-L1 therapies. Disease therapy areas of interest include NSCLC, ovarian cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, colorectal cancer, prostatic cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma”.


Furthermore, a major interest is the development of predictive markers for patient stratification for these novel therapies. PD-L1 immunohistochemistry has been shown to provide initial promise in the stratification of treatment response to pembrolizumab in advanced NSCLC. It will be imperative to develop similar robust clinically validated efficacy biomarkers to monitor the tumour immune response for novel immunotherapies not targeting the PD1/PD-L1 pathway.