Dr. Sharma Discusses Immune Checkpoint Resistance in GU Cancers

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, professor of Immunology in the Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses immune checkpoint resistance in genitourinary (GU) cancers.

Sharma says that one of the ways to combat immune checkpoint resistance in patients with GU cancers is to use a combination approach. There are many trials addressing that in bladder cancer, such as an anti-CTLA4 agent plus an anti—PD-1/PD-L1 agent, which has shown promise in other tumor types.

In April 2018, the FDA approved the combination of the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) with the CTLA4 inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy) as a frontline treatment for intermediate- and poor-risk patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Sharma says that with this success, it is important to consider moving combination immunotherapy into earlier settings. Antiangiogenesis inhibitors and tyrosine kinase inhibitors are a big part of RCC, Sharma says, and may prove beneficial in combination with immunotherapy.

Sharma concludes that prostate cancer is the next realm of GU cancers to focus on regarding immunotherapy.