AI Summary
The content discusses promising results in immunotherapy and antibody drug conjugates for gynecological cancers presented at ESMO 2024. Studies show that adding immunotherapy to standard treatments benefits women with early-stage endometrial and cervical cancers. Additionally, a novel antibody drug conjugate targeting claudin 6 has shown positive antitumor activity in heavily pretreated patients with ovarian and endometrial cancers. These findings are crucial as gynecological cancers remain a significant cause of cancer deaths globally, and immunotherapy could potentially change the standard of care for these patients.
Studies reported at ESMO 2024 reveal new groups of women with early-stage endometrial and cervical cancers who gain clinically meaningful benefit from adding immunotherapy to current standard treatments, while a first-in-human study found ‘promising’ antitumor activity with a novel antibody drug conjugate (ADC) targeting the protein claudin 6 in heavily pretreated patients with ovarian and endometrial cancers.
Gynecological cancers, including endometrial and cervical cancers, remain a leading cause of cancer deaths and a major challenge to women’s health worldwide. (4) Immunotherapy has greatly improved survival in many people with different cancers such as melanoma, but results have been more variable in those with gynecological cancers, so there is a lot of interest in determining how best to use immunotherapy in these patients.
Results from a phase 3 randomized double-blind study in high-risk locally advanced cervical cancer showed that pembrolizumab plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy achieved a significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival. The 3-year overall survival rate was 82.6% in patients randomized to pembrolizumab compared to 74.8% in the placebo group (p=0.0040); all patients also received chemoradiotherapy.
“The benefit in terms of improved overall survival should change our practice as soon as possible,” said Dr. Isabelle Ray-Coquard, President of the Group d’Investigateurs National Evaluation des Cancers de l’Ovaire (GINECO), Centre Leon Bérard, Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France, not involved in the study. “Immunotherapy plus chemoradiotherapy provides a new standard of care for patients with high-risk locally advanced cervical cancer,” she stated. “In the initial setting, current treatments such as radiochemotherapy