Toufic Kachaamy, Leader of Endoscopic Oncology at Mayo Clinic Florida, shared on LinkedIn:
“Immunotherapy is changing colorectal cancer care and challenging us to rethink treatment sequencing and response assessment.
Thank you to Dr. Pashtoon Kasi for an outstanding discussion at: Advances and Innovations in Endoscopic Oncology and Multidisciplinary GI Cancer Care.
Three messages stood out:
- Know MMR/MSI status early. Tumor biology can fundamentally change the treatment pathway.
- Neoadjuvant immunotherapy is producing remarkable responses in dMMR colon cancer. The NICHE results are compelling, with surgery remaining part of those trials.
- NEST is exploring botensilimab plus balstilimab in both dMMR and pMMR disease. The early signals in pMMR/MSS tumors are exciting and remain investigational.
For endoscopic oncology, this raises an essential question:
How can we assess response accurately enough to support future organ preservation strategies?
That requires medical oncology, endoscopy, surgery, radiology and pathology working together with durable cancer control and quality of life guiding every decision.”
Botensilimab and balstilimab in recurrent ovarian cancer
The combination of
- botensilimab, an investigational anti-CTLA-4 antibody
- balstilimab, an anti-PD-1 antibody
demonstrated promising antitumor activity in a heavily pretreated recurrent ovarian cancer cohort in the Phase 1b C-800-01 trial.
Among 35 efficacy-evaluable patients
- the estimated three-year overall survival rate was 48%
- with a median overall survival of 14.8 months
- an objective response rate of 23%.
Responses lasted a median of 9.7 months, while 31% of patients experienced response or stable disease lasting at least 24 weeks.
These findings suggest potential durable benefit for some patients. However, the small, noncomparative cohort warrants further investigation.
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