Dr. Bellmunt on Immunotherapy Plus IDO in Urothelial Carcinoma

Joaquim Bellmunt, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, director, Bladder Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the combination of immunotherapy with IDO inhibitors for patients with urothelial carcinoma.

Joaquim Bellmunt, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, director, Bladder Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the combination of immunotherapy with IDO inhibitors for patients with urothelial carcinoma.

There are several trials using combinations of immunotherapy to increase the survival of patients with urothelial carcinoma. For example, there is a trial investigating monotherapy immunotherapy versus immunotherapy with an IDO inhibitor, explains Bellmunt.

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and BMS-986205 generated promising response rates without increasing adverse effects in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma in an early-phase clinical trial. The dual immunotherapy regimen resulted in an objective response rate (ORR) of 32.0% (95% CI, 14.9%-53.5%) among 25 evaluable patients. The disease control rate, which consists of ORR and stable disease, was 44.0% (95% CI, 24.4%-65.1%) in the patients with urothelial carcinoma.

According to Bellmunt, this combination is moving to a randomized phase III trial in the first- and second-line setting, particularly for patients who cannot receive chemotherapy.