Dr. Agarwala on Impact of Combining Entinostat with Pembrolizumab

Sanjiv S. Agarwala, MD, chief of medical oncology and hematology, St. Luke’s Cancer Center, professor of medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, discusses the impact of combining entinostat with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) across a number of tumor types.

In a phase Ib/II study, the small molecular inhibitor entinostat was paired with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab for the treatment of patients with non—small cell lung cancer, melanoma, and mismatch-repair proficient colorectal cancer. In all cases, these patients were refractory to pembrolizumab alone.

Data from the study, which were presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, show that the addition of entinostat resulted in an 18% confirmed overall response rate. Agarwala adds that 29% of patients who had disease progression became stable under the combination. Primary endpoints of the study were safety and efficacy.