Dr. Garon on Incorporating Immunotherapies Into Lung Cancer Treatment

Edward Garon, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, discusses incorporating immunotherapies into the treatment of patients with lung cancer.

The PD-1 inhibitors pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo) are both approved for the treatment of previously treated patients with metastatic non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Garon explains. The main difference between the agents, he adds, is the requirement of a biomarker: Pembrolizumab is indicated for the treatment of patients with NSCLC whose tumors express PD-L1, while this is not the case for nivolumab.

The safety profiles between the two agents are fairly similar, though the drugs have not been compared in a head-to-head trial.