A new category of anti-cancer drugs has been introduced over the past few years. These medications that work by modulating the immune system include pembrolizumab (Keytruda), nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy).
Who Gets the Benefits from Immune System Cancer Fighters?
Reports at the recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology show that doctors are beginning to figure out which cancer patients can benefit most from these pricey new prescriptions.
Melanoma
In one study, investigators found that melanoma patients had better responses if given a combination of Opdivo and Yervoy rather than Yervoy alone. More than half (57.6%) of those on the combination showed improvement, compared to about one fifth (19%) of those taking just Yervoy. They were more susceptible to side effects, however.
Tumors Having Trouble with DNA Repair
Another study established that these immunotherapy cancer treatments work primarily for patients whose tumors have trouble repairing their DNA. Because cancer cells multiply rapidly, such mismatch repair errors can spread quickly and lead to many mutations. But apparently Keytruda can zero in on these defects and expose these tumors to the immune system more efficiently.
This approach to recruiting the immune system to overcome serious cancers has excited researchers. We have written about Opdivo previously.
photo credit: Yale Rosen https://www.flickr.com/photos/pulmonary_pathology/ cc license cropped
