What's New in Immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy has become one of the cornerstones of therapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Trials from recent years and ongoing studies have attempted to answer questions about improving response rates, finding the ideal period(s) to introduce immunotherapy, and identifying the patients who are most likely to respond.

Review “What’s New in Immunotherapy?” published in the October 2020 issue of ENTtoday, before you answer the question.

Which of the following gives INCORRECT information about data from immunotherapy trials in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinomas?

Results of the Keynote-048 trial ultimately helped lead to the approval of pembrolizumab, a blocker of the programmed death receptor one pathway (PD-1), as first-line therapy.

In the CheckMate 141 trial, the PD-1 blocker nivolumab nearly tripled overall survival rates at 24 months compared to standard therapy in patients receiving first-line treatment, with patients positive for PD-1 ligand (PD-L1) having near identical long-term survival as PD-1 ligand negative patients.

According to results from the CheckMate 141 trial and other data, patients should be stratified for treatment with immunotherapy based on their positivity for the human papilloma virus (HPV).

The EAGLE trial tested combination therapy with a blocker of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4; tremelimumab) with a PD-L1 blocker (durvalumab). No differences in overall survival were found in patients taking both therapies compared to patients taking the PD-L1 blocker only (or compared with patients on standard therapy).

Question by Ruth Jessen Hickman, MD