Dr. Gordon on the Role of Checkpoint Inhibitors in Hematologic Malignancies

Leo I. Gordon, MD, professor of medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, discusses the role of checkpoint inhibitors for patients with hematologic malignancies.

According to Gordon, there was an international trial of 72 patients who received pidilizumab (CT-011), which is one of the first checkpoint inhibitors. It may not work as a checkpoint inhibitor, but there was very little toxicity associated with the drug.

The PLATFORM study is going to be combining the checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) with CAR T cells in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). It makes sense to combine the checkpoint inhibitors with CAR T cells; however, the safety issues, the dosing, and the sequencing still need to be determined, states Gordon.