Dr. You on Findings from the TROPHIMMUN Study in Gestational Trophoblastic Tumors

Benoit You, MD, PhD, academic staff physician in the Medical Oncology Department of Lyon University Hospital, discusses the findings of the phase 2 TROPHIMMUN study which treated chemotherapy-resistant gestational trophoblastic tumors with avelumab (Bavencio).

Investigators enrolled a total of 15 patients and out of those, 8 experienced hCG normalization, says You. They found that patients could stop avelumab and none presented with any relapse with 25 months of follow-up, and within 29 months, patients had successful treatment with avelumab. One patient who was successfully treated with avelumab was able to develop a normal pregnancy 1 year after the discontinuation of avelumab and normalization of hCG; this was the first report of a normal pregnancy after successful treatment with immunotherapy, says You. The 7 remaining patients who were resistant to avelumab were successfully treated with chemotherapy with or without surgery, concludes You.