Stenzl - Figure 37
Epacadostat Plus Pembrolizumab in Patients With Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma
FIG. 37: As we know, checkpoint inhibitors cannot used successfully in all patients, and they have quite a low success rate in metastatic disease. The combination of a checkpoint inhibitor such as pembrolizumab with a new enzyme-blocking agent such as epacadostat might change the immune environment of the tumor and thus enhance the activity of the checkpoint inhibitor.
The recently reported KEYNOTE-037 trial showed some nice results.[25] As can be seen from the responses shown on the spider plot on the right lower panel of the Figure, apparently it was possible to use immunohistochemistry to predict the PD-L1 expression of the tumor. The result was use of combination therapies, which means we need to develop new ways of molecular uptake in patients who will respond to certain combinations.
References
Smith DC, Gajewski T, Hamid O, et al. Epacadostat plus pembrolizumab in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma: Preliminary phase I/II results of ECHO-202/KEYNOTE-037. J Clin Oncol. 2017;35(suppl):Abstract 4503 http://abstracts.asco.org/199/AbstView_199_183204.html
