Dr. Ku on Role of Durvalumab in Gastric Cancer

Geoffrey Y. Ku, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the role of durvalumab (Imfinzi) in the treatment of patients with gastric cancer.

There remains a lack of clarity on whether PD-L1 inhibitors like durvalumab, atezolizumab (Tecentriq), and avelumab (Bavencio) are comparable with PD-1 inhibitors like pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo). These drugs inhibit the same axis, but it is unknown if they have the same activity. Recent studies have looked at PD-L1 inhibition in gastric cancer, particularly with avelumab, but these trials were relatively disappointing, Ku says.

In a 5-cohort study presented at the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting, durvalumab was evaluated as a second- and third-line treatment for patients with gastric cancer. Specifically, researchers were trying to use an interferon-γ signature to enrich patients who were more likely to respond to the therapy. While this biomarker seemed feasible in predicting response to durvalumab, data showed it did not correspond with a significant advantage in terms of clinical outcomes.