Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: IOVA) has announced clinical data from the study of lifileucel combined with pembrolizumab in advanced cancers at the annual Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer Meeting.
Lifileucel showed promising results in combination with pembrolizumab
In patients with an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-naive cervical cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and metastatic melanoma, clinical data presented in the presentation reveal excellent response rates following lifileucel with pembrolizumab treatment. Also, clinical data showed that lifileucel could be safely paired with pembrolizumab, indicating that TIL cell therapy combinations as an early-line treatment for advanced solid tumor malignancies should be investigated further.
C-145-04 Study Investigator David O’Malley said, “Immune checkpoint inhibitors are standard-of-care in the treatment of several types of advanced cancer, including cervical cancer, melanoma, and head and neck cancer. Unmet needs remain to help more patients respond and to enhance the depth and durability of responses. I was impressed by the increase in overall response rate for lifileucel in combination with pembrolizumab in cervical cancer patients, which was consistent with higher response rates in head and neck cancer and melanoma patients. Taken together the clinical data show great promise for TIL in combination with pembrolizumab across multiple solid tumors.”
Novel early-line combinations are required to increase the rate of responses
Novel early-line combination treatments are required to increase the rate and depth of responses while maintaining reasonable long-term safety. Individuals with ICI- and chemotherapy-naive cervical cancer and patients with ICI-nave advanced melanoma and HNSCC were included in the SITC oral presentation. At the start of the study, all three cohorts had a significant tumor burden.
“The encouraging results for Iovance TIL plus pembrolizumab across several tumor types validate the combination of checkpoint inhibition and TIL cell therapy as a potential platform approach in solid tumors. We observed response rates that are approximately double compared to what was seen with single-agent pembrolizumab in early-line melanoma and head and neck cancers as well as second-line cervical cancer,” commented Chief Medical Officer Friedrich Graf Finckenstein.
