Segment 7 - Ultimate Measures of Efficiency in Immuno-Oncology

People are now viewing cancer as a kind of chronic disease that can be held at bay, if it cannot be eliminated entirely, according to Kimberly Shafer-Weaver, PhD.

“Right now we are looking at progression-free, stable disease as almost a win,” she said.

Keeping that in mind, Michael Kolodziej, MD, expects the rules will change, although he is skeptical that non-traditional endpoints will start to be implemented. The way those would be used, he said, would be to distinguish one of the many PD-1, PD-L1 drugs from the others.

“I think patient-reported outcomes are sorely lacking from the vast majority of work that has been done in oncology,” Dr Kolodziej said. “If we could find a way to collect that data and tie it to other more traditional endpoints that would be a great service.”