SPECIAL

Looking towards the future: Innovations and advances in cancer immunotherapy

In recent years, innovative, T-cell based immunotherapeutic strategies have yielded excellent outcomes, with long-lasting results and tumour-specific antitumour activity. During the 25th annual BSMO meeting, Prof. Pierre Coulie (de Duve Institute, Brussels) opened a window on the potential future of immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer

Skin cancer session

The skin cancer session of the 25th annual meeting of The Belgian Society for Medical Oncology highlighted recent advances in the treatment of patients with melanoma and other skin cancers. Beginning this session, Prof. Dr. Vibeke Kruse (VITAZ – AZ Nikolaas, Sint-Niklaas) discussed adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatments for melanoma. Subsequently, Prof. Dr. Oliver Bechter (University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven) outlined recent findings in metastatic melanoma. Prof. Dr. Jean-Francois Baurain (Cliniques Universitaires St Luc, Brussels) followed up with a ‘survival guide’ for medical oncologists dealing with non-melanoma skin cancer. Dr. Tess van Meerhaeghe (Hôpital Erasme, Cliniques Universitaires de Bruxelles, Brussels) closed the session with an overview of immune checkpoint inhibitors in kidney transplant recipients.

Oral Abstracts

Poster Abstracts

Immunotherapy for non-metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer: available data and future perspectives

Over the last decade, immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) has dramatically changed the treatment landscape for patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The success of ICI-based therapy in the metastatic setting fed the interest to also evaluate the potential of immunotherapy in earlier NSCLC disease stages. This article will provide a brief overview of the available, practice-changing data with ICI-based therapy in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment for patients with early-stage NSCLC. Recently, these data led to the EMA approval of atezolizumab as monotherapy in the adjuvant treatment of selected early-stage NSCLC patients. In addition, EMA approval is currently also being sought for the combination of nivolumab and chemotherapy as neoadjuvant therapy for patients with resectable NSCLC. In addition to the results in the (neo)adjuvant setting, this article will also address the clinical basis for ICI-based therapy in unresectable,locally-advanced NSCLC.

The evolving role of immunotherapy in the treatment paradigm for patients with small-cell lung cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for about 15% of all lung cancer cases and is characterized by an aggressive disease course and a particularly poor prognosis. For decades, the best available systemic therapy for patients with extensive-stage (ES) SCLC consisted of platinum-etoposide chemotherapy. In recent years, however, extensive-stage (ES) SCLC has become the second thoracic malignancy in which immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) proved to prolong the survival of patients. In fact, the phase III CASPIAN and IMpower133 studies showed that the addition of respectively durvalumab and atezolizumab to chemotherapy significantly prolongs the overall survival (OS) of patients with ES-SCLC. The results of these studies quickly established chemo-immunotherapy as the preferred initial treatment for these patients. Nevertheless, the benefit provided by ICI remains to be limited to a proportion of patients and most patients eventually relapse. Therefore, innovative treatment strategies and ICI-based combinations are currently under investigation to further improve the prognosis of patients with ES-SCLC. In addition, studies are looking into the potential of ICI in patients with limited stage (LS) disease.

Immune checkpoint inhibition for pancreatic cancer: is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) continues to be one of the most lethal cancers. In recent years, immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) resulted in dramatic clinical benefits in many solid tumor types. However, PDAC patients are yet to experience the potential benefits of this treatment strategy. This article will provide a brief overview of the available data obtained with ICI-based treatments in patients with advanced PDAC. These studies illustrate that PDACs are inherently immune-cold tumors who are largely refractory to ICI-based therapy in clinical trials. Understanding and overcoming the current failures of immunotherapy through elucidating resistance mechanisms and developing novel therapeutic approaches are essential to harness the potential durable benefits of immune-modulating therapy in this setting.