Dr. Luis Raez, MD FACP FCCP, Chief of Hem/Onc and Med. Dir. at Memorial Cancer Institute, & Clinical Associate Prof. of Medicine at FL International University joined GRACE to discuss the response time on checkpoint inhibitors and the concept of pseudoprogression.

Dr. Luis Raez, MD FACP FCCP, Chief of Hem/Onc and Med. Dir. at Memorial Cancer Institute, and Clinical Associate Prof. of Medicine at FL International U. joined GRACE to discuss similarities and differences among immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Dr. Luis Raez, MD FACP FCCP, Chief of Hem/Onc and Med. Dir. at Memorial Cancer Institute, and Clinical Associate Prof. of Medicine at FL International U. joined GRACE to discuss biomarkers for predicting activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Dr. Luis Raez, MD FACP FCCP, Chief of Hem/Onc and Med. Dir. at Memorial Cancer Institute, and Clinical Associate Prof. of Medicine at FL International U. joined GRACE to discuss potential side effects of immune checkpoint inhibitors and basic management approaches.

Dr. Luis Raez, MD FACP FCCP, Chief of Hem/Onc and Med. Dir. at Memorial Cancer Institute, and Clinical Associate Prof. of Medicine at FL International U. joined GRACE to discuss integrating immune checkpoint inhibitors into first-line therapy for advanced NSCLC.

It was a big day for the lung cancer world. After seeing the tantalizing promise of immunotherapy for lung cancer over the past 3 years, but outside of the range of routine clinical practice, the anti-PD1 antibody,  immune checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) was approved by the FDA today for previously treated patients with advanced squamous NSCLC. This was just days after it was formally available for consideration and was based on the clear benefit demonstrated in the pivotal CHECKMATE 017 trial.

Just last week, I ranked the development of immunotherapies as the leading development in lung cancer in 2013. I don't consider 2013 to be the clear turning point for immunotherapies in lung cancer: they have been the subject of interest and research for many years, and ASCO 2012 really marks their breakout from niche idea to more widespread credibility. But if 2012 was the real launchpad, 2013 saw the rocket really take off. The question is where is it really going?