Anne S. Tsao, MD of MD Anderson Cancer Center discusses the new salvage guidelines for mesothelioma, including pembrolizumab & ipilimumab nivolumab. There are a lot of ongoing immunotherapy trials for mesothelioma. Whats clear and definite right now is, tremelimumab by itself is not a good regimen to be given to patents. However, for all the checkpoint inhibitors that were given, nivolumab by itself or pembrolizumab by itself have a 20% response rate in the salvage setting. In addition, based on the MAPS-2 Trial presented at ASCO this year, a 25% response rate is demonstrated in the salvage setting.
Hence, the NCCN guidelines have been amended, based on these studies, that in the salvage setting, Pembrolizumab & Ipilimumab Nivolumab can be given without restrictions to PD-L1 positive patients. Hence, these regimens can be used to get insurance to cover for mesothelioma patients in the salvage setting.