Dr. Niu on Combining Immunotherapy With VEGF Inhibitors in ES-SCLC

Jason Niu, MD, PhD, director, Lung Cancer Program, Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses combining immunotherapy with VEGF Inhibitors in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC).

Combining immunotherapy with VEGF inhibitors has shown efficacy in other tumor types, says Niu.

For example, the combinations of pembrolizumab (Keytruda)/axitinib (Inlyta) and avelumab (Bavencio)/axitinib have been approved for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. Additionally, bevacizumab (Avastin) plus atezolizumab (Tecentriq) elicited a survival benefit for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

It is likely that all patients with ES-SCLC will receive immunotherapy up front based on the positive findings from the phase 3 IMpower133 and CASPIAN studies, says Niu.

However, additional research is needed to determine which immunotherapeutic agent should be given to patients who progress in the first-line setting. There could be clinical rationale to implement immunotherapy/VEGF inhibitor combinations in this setting, concludes Niu.