Dr. Skarbnik on Impact of Checkpoint Inhibition Following ASCT

Alan Skarbnik, MD, staff physician, department of Bone Marrow Transplant, department of Lymphoma, John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the preliminary safety and efficacy data for checkpoint inhibition with ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) following autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in high-risk hematologic malignancies.

In a study presented at the 2017 Annual ASH Meeting, patients with diffuse large b-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who are primary refractory or relapsed, patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma that is de novo stage III/IV or relapsed, and patients with multiple myeloma who are transplant-naïve with high-risk cytogenetics or relapse within 3 years of upfront, were enrolled prior to ASCT to received checkpoint blockade.

The toxicity profile was within expectations—there was a significant number of immune-related adverse events, but not outside the realm of previously reported data, Skarbink explains. Overall survival was 92% and progression-free survival was 88% for the entire cohort at a median follow-up of 24 weeks. Additionally, 100% of the patients with primary refractory DLBCL are in complete remission, while 100% of the patients with relapsed multiple myeloma after first ASCT are now in stringent complete remission, investigators report.