ASCO 2016, Chicago – reporting back

“Collective Wisdom” is the theme for this year’s ASCO.

Our attending team includes Melinda, Barbara, Jason, Andie, Kathi, Donna, Stacie and myself. Melinda and Barbara are staffing the exhibit while the rest of us are dispersed throughout the conference halls attending sessions or connecting with the various biopharma industry, researchers, physicians and advocates. It’s wonderful to meet up with Lisa, a long time CCA survivor, so well known to us.

In the past 5 years, cancer immunotherapy has captured the attention of the medical community and the general public; however scientists are questioning the challenges of successfully integrating immune-oncology in cancer care. We know that immunotherapy research is still in its infancy. Many scientists and doctors around the world are studying new ways to use immunotherapy to treat cancer.

There is not a clear understanding as to why some patients respond to immunotherapy whereas other do not. PD-1 inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab (Keytruda), nivolumab (Opdivoa) and adoptive T-Cell therapy have shown excellent results in a subset of our patients, but other patients have not had similar results.

Researchers are trying to gain a better understanding of the intended immune reaction and how it is related to genetic changes driving the ability of a tumor to induce an immune response.

They also are trying to identify targeted cancer drugs that hat block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules (“molecular targets”) that are involved in the growth, progression, and spread of cancer.

There was talk of combination therapies i.e. including other drugs (biologic, non-biologic or chemotherapy agents) leading to better patient response. Discussions centered around multiple types of immunotherapy combinations and potential combinations such as checkpoint plus adoptive T-cell transfer (Melinda’s NIH trial) with T-cell engineering, checkpoint and and small molecules such as VEGF, EGFR, or BRAF, checkpoint and cancer vaccine, checkpoint and chemotherapy and combination of checkpoint inhibitors such as Keytruda and Opdivo with added radiation.

Note: What is a checkpoint inhibitor?
An important part of the immune system is its ability to tell between normal cells in the body and those it sees as “foreign.” This lets the immune system attack the foreign cells while leaving the normal cells alone. To do this, it uses “checkpoints” – molecules on certain immune cells – that need to be activated (or inactivated) to start an immune response.

In order to gain a better understanding of the science and possible benefits of enrolling in these type of clinical research studies, hundreds of clinical trials are currently conducted and many more are yet to follow.

As these clinical research studies are brought to our attention, the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation will continue to update you on all developments.
Marion