Immunotherapy: ASCO's Advance of the Year

June 14, 2016

Highlights from ASCO report

Immunotherapy has been chosen as the "clinical cancer advance of the year" by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in its Clinical Cancer Advances 2016 report.

The report documents "important progress being made in clinical cancer research and highlights emerging trends in the field," the society explains.

"No recent advance has been more transformative than the rise of immunotherapy, particularly over this past year," writes ASCO president Julie Vose, MD, in the introduction.

Three immune checkpoint blockers are now available in the United States — ipilimumab (Yervoy), nivolumab (Opdivo), and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) — and many others are in development. These drugs initially made an impact in advanced melanoma where patients previously had a life expectancy measured in months, but, in some cases, the new immunotherapies have extended that time to years.

Sources:

Medscape Medical News: Immunotherapy is ASCO's Advance of the Year http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/858264

Medscape Medical News: What’s Hot at ASCO 2016
http://www.medscape.com/viewar...

Clinical Cancer Advances 2016: Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer From the American Society of Clinical Oncology.  Published online before print. February 4, 2016, doi:10.1200/JCO.2015.65.8427 http://jco.ascopubs.org/conten...

See also Dana-Farber Cancer Institute interview on immunotherapy and melanoma: http://blog.dana-farber.org/in...