From ASCO to ICLIO to Your Program: Immunotherapy Moves into the Community

Once again immuno-oncology (I-O) was center stage at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (June 2-6, 2017) where more than 250 presentations featured checkpoint inhibitors. Currently, six immune checkpoint inhibitors have received FDA approval for more than nine cancers, with more than 1,000 studies in progress.

On June 2 at ASCO, two pre-eminent immunotherapy investigators provided perspective on the rapidly evolving immuno-oncology landscape with a look back and a look to the future.  During their presentation, “On the Shoulders of Giants: Historical Approaches to Immunotherapy in Solid Tumors,” James P. Allison, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Suzanne L. Topalian, MD, of the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, touched on some of the critical challenges the oncology community faces with these new and emerging therapies, including:

• How to deal with the flood of information from clinical studies
• The need to better understand the biologic processes underpinning of side effects of these new therapies
• The imperative to identify biomarkers.

Read highlights from their presentation in this ASCO Daily News article.

ICLIO’s Evolving Role—Supporting Integration of I-O into Practice
Just as insights from ASCO 2017 will continue to ripple throughout the broader cancer community for weeks and months to come; the wave of new approvals and indications in immuno-oncology will continue to spread from academic settings into community programs and practices, where it is estimated that 85% of the nation’s cancer care is delivered.

Since its inception more than two years ago, the ongoing mission of ACCC’s Institute for Clinical Immuno-Oncology (ICLIO) is to create education, resources, and tools that provide practical, real-world support for multidisciplinary team members engaged in bringing immunotherapy to patients in their communities. Hear about ICLIO’s growth and latest initiatives in this ASCO Post interview with ICLIO Advisory Committee Chair Lee Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, Chief, Division of Hematology Oncology; Professor of Medicine, The University of Tennessee; The West Clinic, PC.

ICLIO In the Community
In 2017, ICLIO launched two exciting new programs—ICLIO Visiting Experts and Case Studies in Immuno-Oncology—that bring clinicians with immunotherapy expertise out to providers in the community.

“It’s an area that ICLIO is spearheading,” said ICLIO Visiting Expert Jarushka Naidoo, MBBCh, Assistant Professor of Oncology at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. With the ICLIO Visiting Experts program, “Investigators such as myself who are particularly interested in immunotherapy can actually go to community providers and give our hands-on experience of how we give these agents, what are the common side effects that we see, and what are some of the ways we’ve gotten around some of those particular considerations. We’re able to interact with the workshop participants one-on-one and talk about specific cases they’ve managed, some challenges they’ve had, and how we might have dealt with that from an academic perspective.”

Learn more in this Hem/Onc Today interview with Dr. Naidoo:

For the just-launched Case Studies in Immuno-Oncology, an ICLIO faculty member will travel to an ACCC-member program for a 60-minute case-based tumor board discussion on immunotherapy treatment decision-making and the management of associated immune-related adverse events. Learn more and apply.

Immuno-Oncology Advances from ASCO 2017
Access top-level takeaways on advances in immunotherapy for cancer from the ASCO 2017 Annual Meeting in this  ICLIO webinar presented by Lee Schwartzberg, MD, FACP.  View webinar.

View all ICLIO has to offer by visiting accc-iclio.org.

Editor’s note: This post was updated on 6/28/17.