Squams squash ipi.

Yet another trial shows that ipilimumab (CTLA-4 inhibitor) as mono-immunotherapy falls short. Over 700 patients with Stage IV and/or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lung were randomized to standard carbo/Taxol x 6 cycles +/- ipi until progression. Sadly there was no improvement seen with the addition of ipi, which conferred a median overall survival of 13 months versus 12 months with placebo. What did it do? Well, it more than tripled the rates of serious adverse events, for one. This is in stark contrast to big benefits seen among advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with inhibitors of the PD1 pathway such as durvulamab (trial included 46% SCC) and pembrolulizumab (trial included 18% SCC). We suspect that NSCLC--squamous cell and otherwise--may follow suit of a more superficial malignancy we heard a lot about last week and prove to respond better to PD1 than CTLA-4 inhibition and probably best to inhibition of both.