The therapeutic landscape for advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is rapidly evolving with improved knowledge of the biology of disease leading to the incorporation of a variety of antiangiogenic agents and immunotherapies. In this review, we discuss historical, current, and emerging first line treatment options for patients with advanced ccRCC. These include data with single agent vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs): sunitinib, pazopanib and cabozantinib as well as the recently reported results for the combination of lenvatinib and everolimus (mTOR inhibitor). We also discuss results of the nivolumab anti-programmed cell death (PD-1)/ipilimumab (anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4) combination as well as emerging front-line data with nivolumab and pembrolizumab (anti-PD-1) monotherapy. Finally, we review data supporting recent approvals of TKI and anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) combinations (e.g., axitinib/pembrolizumab, axitinib/avelumab and cabozantinib/nivolumab) and initial outcomes of lenvatinib (multi-kinase inhibitor) and pembrolizumab. With many individual and combination treatment options and the lack of head-to-head comparisons, treatment selection will depend on the goals of therapy (endpoints) and the identification and validation of clinical and tumor-based predictive biomarkers that are linked to the desired treatment endpoints.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a particularly lethal subtype of lung cancer whose treatment landscape has been relatively devoid of advance. The recent integration of immunotherapy in the firstline treatment of SCLC has improved overall survival (OS), prompting the first major paradigm shift for this disease in decades. Despite this improvement in outcomes, most patients with SCLC will relapse after initial response. Standard salvage systemic therapy for SCLC remains disappointing, with few approved agents and consistently poor outcomes. The need for novel agents to combat this disease remains pressing.Fortunately, there are several agents in various stages of development that hold potential as novel treatments for advanced SCLC. Lurbinectedin, which targets active transcription, has shown activity in platinumsensitive and platinum-resistant SCLC as monotherapy and in combination with doxorubicin. Aurora A kinase (AAK) inhibitors showed initial activity when given with paclitaxel but in randomized studies, failed to improve outcomes over paclitaxel plus placebo. However, in the subset of patients with MYC expression, targeting AAK was effective. Similarly, agents targeting poly-ADP ribose (PARP) pair well with other DNA damaging drugs but in the subset of patients whose tumors express Schlafen-11 (SLFN-11), efficacy appeared greater. CDK 4/6 inhibition is being explored, primarily as a means to protect myeloid cells during cytotoxic chemotherapy in a strategy expected to be uniquely effective in SCLC. Ongoing trials are also studying are novel formulations of established cytotoxic agents. Delta-like protein 3 (DLL3) is an appealing therapeutic target given its selective expression on SCLC cells, but after initial exciting results, the antibodydrug conjugate (ADC) Rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) did not have a favorable efficacy to toxicity profile in randomized trials. Other agents targeting DLL3 are under study. Targeting angiogenesis has yielded modest improvements in the past but newer agents such as anlotinib are renewing interest. While the current therapeutic landscape beyond chemo-immunotherapy remains the same as it was decades ago, drug development for SCLC is rapidly moving forward and promises to deliver the needed novel agents in the very near future.

Evidence regarding the association between body mass index (BMI) and immune-related adverse events (irAEs) among cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is limited. Here, we use cross-sectional hospital-based data to explore their relationship. Pre-treatment BMI was treated as an ordinal variable (<25, 25 to ≤30, ≥30 kg/m2). The outcome of interest was irAEs after ICI initiation. A multivariable logistic regression model estimated the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of BMI. A total of 684 patients with stage III or IV cancer were included in the study (lung: 269, melanoma: 204, other: 211). The mean age at the first dose of ICI was 64.1 years (SD = 13.5), 394 patients (57.6%) were male, and over one-third (N = 260, 38.0%) were non-White. Overall, 52.9% of patients had BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 (25 to ≤30: 217, ≥30: 145) and 288 (42.1%) had irAEs after ICI treatment. Patients with higher BMI tended to have a higher rate of irAEs (<25: 35.7%, 25 to ≤30: 47.0%, ≥30: 49.0%). The multivariable logistic regression yielded consistent results (BMI ≥ 30 vs. BMI < 25: aOR = 1.47, 95% CI = 0.96–2.23; 25 ≤ BMI < 30 vs. BMI < 25: aOR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.02–2.11, p-trend = 0.04). In conclusion, among patients with advanced cancer receiving ICIs, the rate of irAEs appears to be higher among those with higher BMI.

2587 Background: ICIs have now become standard of care treatment for multiple malignancies. However, patients (pts) who are African American decent (AA), have a poor ECOG performance status (PS) or chronic viral infections [human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV)] were underrepresented in early clinical trials with ICIs and outcome data in these pt populations is not well reported. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of pts treated with ICIs (anti-PD(L)-1, anti-CTLA-4, or combination ICIs) across five MedStar Health hospitals from January 2011 to April 2018. Investigator-assessed best responses were noted. CTCAE v4.03 was used to capture immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Results: We identified 765 pts treated with 829 unique ICIs therapies across different malignancies. A total of 203 AA pts, 178 pts with a pre-treatment ECOG PS ≥2, 21pts with HIV, and 50 pts with HBV/HCV were noted. Any grade and grade ≥ 3 irAEs in the HIV cohort were 24% and 10% with an ORR of 29%. Any grade and grade ≥ 3 irAEs in HBV/HCV were 50% and 26% with an ORR of 21%. No viral reactivation or changes in pts anti-viral medications were noted during ICIs treatment. The ORR in AA pts was 35%. Any grade and grade ≥ 3 irAEs in the AA cohort were 27% and 8%, respectively. The ORR in pts with ECOG PS ≥2 was 14%. Any grade and grade ≥ 3 irAEs in this cohort were 20% and 4%. Similar trends were seen in the subset of patients with NSCLC treated with anti-PD(L)1 monotherapy (Table). Outcomes of NSCLC pts treated with anti-PD(L)-1 monotherapy. Conclusions: ICI therapy was not associated with any new safety signal in the above underrepresented populations. Prospective studies are needed to validate this data.[Table: see text]

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