The buzz created by two phase III studies testing immunotherapy in advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) annual meeting in April carried over to the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.
At ASCO, physicians were still talking about how the and trials will change the future of treatment for these patients, along with the implications for second-line care. In this exclusive 51˶ video, , of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discusses some of the from RUBY presented at the meeting.
Following is a transcript of her remarks:
So I think probably the hot topic in endometrial cancer is the recent data showing that there may be benefit in patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer by adding immunotherapy to upfront treatment or treatment for recurrence in addition to Taxol [paclitaxel] and carboplatin.
Two big studies were presented at SGO just a few months ago, and I think based on those studies, even the were adjusted as well. So in patients with either advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer, instead of giving just Taxol-carbo [carboplatin] alone in patients with measurable disease you have the opportunity to also add either Keytruda [pembrolizumab] or dostarlimab [Jemperli].
At ASCO, this afternoon some follow-up studies are going to be presented looking at the RUBY trial. So specifically looking at [PROs] and other outcomes related to the primary data that was already presented.
The data hasn't been presented yet, but at least based on the preliminary data presented with the primary abstracts, it doesn't seem to show that the addition of immunotherapy adds significant toxicity or difficulty for patients. So hopefully we'll not only see benefits for treatment, but not really a detriment to side effects and [PROs].
The main thing is we want to see is if there is clinical benefit to patients, and at least based on preliminary data, that seems to be shown. I think we also want to make sure that adding maintenance therapy for up to 2 to 3 years in the RUBY trial will actually not have a negative effect on how patients are physically feeling. Because that's a long time to be on treatment.
One of the difficulties is if we give patients immunotherapy with their primary treatment, then it really changes the landscape for second-line therapy. And so right now when patients get Taxol-carbo upfront, if they recur they'll often be given immunotherapy plus targeted therapy if they have mismatch repair-proficient disease. And if we give everyone [pembrolizumab] or dostarlimab upfront, then our opportunity to treat them is going to have to change in the second-line therapy.