Ira Winer, MD, PhD, Discusses Next Steps for Nemvaleukin Alfa Plus Pembrolizumab in Ovarian Cancer
Ira Winer, MD, PhD, FACOG, spoke about future directions of nemvaleukin alfa plus pembrolizumab for patients with pretreated platinum resistant ovarian cancer.
During The Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2022 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, CancerNetwork® spoke with Ira Winer, MD, PhD, FACOG, a gynecologic oncologist at the Karmanos Cancer Center and associate professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Wayne State University in Detroit, about the combination of nemvaleukin alfa (ALKS 4230) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and what the future holds for patients with pretreated platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. He mentioned how the combination was granted fast track designation by the FDA,1 with decision for approval based on the pending results of the phase 1/2 ARTISTRY-7 trial (NCT05092360).
Transcript:
[Nemvaleukin alfa and pembrolizumab] has been granted fast track designation [by the FDA]. The registration trial is the phase 3 ARTISTRY-7 trial. That’s in platinum-resistant disease. It’s ongoing, and it’s recruiting. It’s a comparator to conventional chemotherapy, and that’s an important aspect, because again, we see an objective response [rate of 28.5% in a small group of patients who were treated in the phase 1/2 ARTISTRY-1 trial (NCT02799095)].2 It’s going to be even more important to see [use of the combination] in a large group of patients with a varied background in terms of what their disease statuses is. I think this is a proof of principle for the field that ovarian cancer can in fact, be targeted with immuno-oncology agents. It’s just a matter of finding the right combination and the correct patients to target correctly.
References
1. Alkermes received FDA fast track designation for nembaleukin alfa in combination with pembrolizumab for the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. News Release. Alkermes. October 25, 2021. March 24, 2022. https://bit.ly/3NiqWI2
2. Winer I. Clinical outcomes of ovarian cancer patients treated with the novel engineered cytokine nemvaleukin alfa in combination with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab: recent data from ARTISTRY-1. Poster presented at: 2022 SGO Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer; March 18-21, 2022; Phoenix, Arizona. Accessed March 19, 2022.
