The success of cancer immunotherapy
The results of a number of studies presented at the annual congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology held on June 3-7 in Chicago demonstrate the revolutionary potential of immunotherapy in the treatment of difficult-to-treat types of malignant neoplasms, including bladder and lung cancer.
One of them, conducted under the guidance of associate professor Arjun Vasant Balar from New York University, showed that the antibody drug Tesentriq (Tecentriq) developed by Genentech reduced the size of bladder tumors in a quarter of 119 patients with late stages of the disease who took part in the study. At the same time, the median survival rate for them was almost 15 months. For comparison, the median survival rate when using traditional chemotherapeutic approaches is 9-10 months.
Tesentric, which provides the immune system with the ability to attack cancer cells, has demonstrated effectiveness even in the treatment of patients with late-stage bladder cancer who cannot receive chemotherapy due to poor health.
Based on the preliminary results of this study, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted permission for commercial use of the drug in an expedited manner.
The researchers plan to conduct a larger clinical trial of tesentrica as a first-line therapy involving patients with late-stage bladder cancer, mainly affecting the elderly, most of whom smoke or have smoked in the past.
A new immunotherapeutic approach in combination with a cancer–destroying agent has also demonstrated its promise in the treatment of patients with small cell lung cancer - the most aggressive form of lung cancer, which accounts for 10% to 15% of all tumors of this organ. To this conclusion, scientists working under the leadership of Charles Rudin (Charles Rudin) from the Memorial Cancer Center. Sloan Kettering, came based on the results of a separate clinical trial in which 74 patients participated.
This therapy is a combination of chemotherapy and the new immunopreparation rovalpituzumab tesirine (rovalpituzumab tesirine, Rova-T), developed by the startup Stemcentrx, recently acquired by the American laboratory AbbVie.
This combination blocked tumor growth in 98% of patients with high levels of DLL3 protein expressed by small cell lung cancer cells. At the same time, tumor regression was registered in 39% of the study participants. Among them were several patients who, according to doctors, had no more than a year to live.
A European study, the results of which were also presented at the congress, demonstrated promising results of the use of immunotherapy selectively affecting the protein claudine18.2 expressed by stomach cancer cells in the late stages of the disease.
This drug, IMAB362, developed by the German company Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, has also been used in combination with chemotherapy.
According to the results of a clinical study involving 161 patients with aggressive gastric tumors, this combination significantly increased the survival rate of patients, which was 13.2-16.7 months compared with 8.4-9 months for control group patients who underwent chemotherapy alone.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the American Society of Clinical Oncology: 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.
10.06.2016