Dr. Patel on the Potential With PARP/Immunotherapy Combos in NSCLC

Sandip P. Patel, MD, a medical oncologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego Health, discusses the potential of combining PARP inhibitors with immunotherapy for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A robust dataset has been emerging around the use of PARP inhibitors and PD-1 inhibitors for patients across a number BRCA wild-type cancers, including ovarian and endometrial cancer, and other gynecologic malignancies, according to Patel. The dataset is of interest in NSCLC, although it is not clear as to why the combination has yielded positive results in this subset of patients, he explains.

The lung cancer community is anticipating emerging data in this area, as well as in combination with other therapeutics that will help to enhance PARP trapping, synthetic lethality, or immunogenicity. However, as monotherapy, there may not be a role for PARP inhibitors in thoracic malignancies for the foreseeable future, Patel concludes.