Dr. Halfdanarson on the Evolving Role of Immunotherapy in CRC

Thorvardur (Thor) Halfdanarson, MD, an associate professor of medicine, Division of Medical Oncology; a medical oncologist; and an assistant program director for the Hematology/Oncology fellowship program at Mayo Clinic, discusses the evolving role of immunotherapy in colorectal cancer (CRC). 

Currently, immunotherapy is a standard of care for patients with mismatch repair deficient metastatic CRC in any line of treatment, Halfdanarson says.

For example, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and other checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated significant efficacy in this patient subgroup.

Furthermore, patients now undergo genomic testing when they are diagnosed with early-stage and metastatic disease, says Halfdanarson.

Despite the interest that immunotherapy has garnered in the space, the utility of the modality is still unclear in patients with metastatic mismatch repair proficient or microsatellite stable tumors, Halfdanarson concludes.