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Immunotherapy

What is Immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy is a treatment that activates or suppresses the immune system and by that assist the immune system in attacking the tumor. This type of treatment is very different from chemotherapy, for example, which directly attacks the cancerous cells but unfortunately also damages healthy tissues.

The immune system has “immune barriers” which serve to regulate the immune system and prevent it from attacking the body. In cancer these functions are readily activated and as a result, the immune system ceases to attack cancerous cells, enabling the tumor to grow and proliferate in the body.

Barriers known as PD-L1, PD-1 and CTLA-4 are found on T-cells and cancer cells. For example, the biological drug Opidivo® (generic name: Nivolumab) activates the immune system against the tumor.

Immunotherapy is a revolutionary strategy, and one of the most widely studied worldwide for its application to numerous types of cancer and various stages of the disease’s development. Treatment is generally provided in the form of an intravenous infusion.

Immunotherapy drugs examples:

PD-1 drugs:
• Keytruda® (Pembrolizumab)
• Opdivo® (Nivolumab)

PD-L1 drugs:
• Tecentriq® (Atezolizumab)
• Imfinzi® (Durvalumab)

What are the most common side effects?

Reaction of the skin

Redness, blisters and dryness. The skin can become sensitive when exposed to sunlight. Inflammation around the fingernails can occur and cause pain when dressing, for example.

Flu-like symptoms

Fatigue, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, body pain and high or low blood pressure

Other side effects may be:

  • Muscle Pain
  • Difficulties in breathing
  • Swelling of the legs
  • Sinus congestion
  • Headaches
  • Weight gain due to accumulation of fluids
  • Diarrhea
  • Hormonal changes
  • Cough

And there could be more

Most of the side effects will disappear at the end of the immunotherapy treatment, but some can occur months and even years later.

It is important to consult with your healthcare professional about coping with side effects.

TRIAL-IN-Pharma offers a unique, personalized research and analysis for patients with metastatic cancer and brain tumors, which reveals innovative and advanced oncologic treatments around the world and support the process of achieving them.

Read our publications on immunotherapy and other innovative treatments for stage 4 metastatic cancer:

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Approved immunotherapy has shown a positive survival benefit in HER2+ breast cancer

This time, we’ll start from the end…

Results of the study

First of all, it is important to note that the research goals were not achieved in the entire study population and were to show that the drug, “Tecentriq”, increases the effectiveness of the treatment when added to treatment with a drug called “Kadcyla” which acts against HER2compared to Kadcyla alone.

However, when analyzing the data, it was found that adding Tecentriq to Kadcyla, increases survival and extends the time to disease progression among PD-L1-positive patients:
94% of patients in the combination arm lived a year later from the start of treatment compared to 88% of patients in the single arm.
The duration of time to disease progression of the two-drug treatment was 8.5 months compared to the 4.1 month with the single drug, when the chance of recurrence during the treatment was reduced by 40% in the combination arm.

The study is called KATE2

KATE2 is a global study that recruited positive HER2 positive patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer. The patients who were suitable for the study were those whose disease progressed after treatment with Herceptin and Taxanes.
Patients were randomly assigned in a 2: 1 ratio to receive Kadcyla with Tecentric or with Placebo.

Safety of Tecentric Combined with Kadcyla

The combination of Tecentriq with Kadcyla was rather well tolerated. In the immunotherapy arm there was a higher rate of infusion reactions, which is a common adverse event of monoclonal antibody infusions. There were also higher rates of thrombocytopenia and transaminitis, which are known adverse events of Kadcyla.
Immune-related adverse events could potentially be attributed primarily to Tecentriq. The three most common immune-related adverse events were rash, hypothyroidism and pancreatitis.

The best treatment for a cancer patient is to get the most advanced cancer drugs in advanced stages of development. There, the hope and the chance to extend life go far beyond the standard protocols.

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