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Immunotherapy & cancer - making the past prologue Immunotherapeutic combinations for cancer

Susan F Slovin

The goals of all novel therapies include improvement in overall survival, quality of life and disease control. We are fortunate to finally have two therapies that have demonstrated survival benefit in Phase III clinical trials – one, ipilimumab, a monoclonal antibody against CTLA-4, a checkpoint inhibitor, and the other, Sipuleucel-T, an autologous-based cellular therapy. Ipilimumab is the second drug that has been approved for melanoma within the last year, suggesting that there are multiple ways to achieve antitumor responses. Sipuleucel-T is the first immunotherapy approved for asymptomatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer, and while Sipuleucel-T lengthened survival modestly, there was no improvement in time to progression and no responders. While Sipuleucel-T has been well-tolerated, ipilimumab has been associated with autoimmune-related events. As single agents, these drugs have shown benefit; however, maximizing durability remains a challenge. This article provides support for our continued efforts in this area of research and clinical care.