martes, 29 de octubre de 2019

The immunotherapy story got more complicated

The Readout
Damian Garde

The immunotherapy story got more complicated

A few years ago, at the dawn of cancer immunotherapy, it looked like the future of oncology would be mixing and matching novel agents to create cocktails that would redefine the standard care. That’s not quite how things turned out, of course, and at least in lung cancer, the current go-to is Merck’s Keytruda backed with old-fashioned chemotherapy.

But the story could yet change, as STAT’s Matthew Herper reports. Yesterday, AstraZeneca reported that a combination of two immunotherapies — Imfinzi and the investigational tremelimumab — beat placebo at slowing the progression of late-stage lung cancer. Last week, Bristol-Myers Squibb reported similar findings with its own immunotherapy drugs, suggesting that Merck’s dominance in the field might not be guaranteed.

It’s early days yet, as neither AstraZeneca nor Bristol-Myers have presented full data at a scientific meeting. But the top-line results bring up the question of whether the conventional wisdom in oncology might change yet again.

Read more.

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