“I like to say that patients at the James have access to tomorrow’s therapies today,” said David O’Malley, MD, the director of the James Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Co-Director of the Gyn Oncology Phase I Program. In this episode, O’Malley describes a new clinical trial that provides “tomorrow’s therapies today” to patients at the James, and beyond. A clinical trial led by O’Malley utilizes two immunotherapy agents to treat women with advanced or recurrent cervical cancer. In the past, there were limited treatment options for these patients. The first drug, balstilimab, allows the immune system of a patient to recognize cancer cells that had previously been able to camouflage themselves and hide from the immune system. The second drug, zalifrelimab helps the body’s tired iimmune cells “reinvigorate themselves to better get to and fight those cancer cells,” O’Malley explains. In a James-led, Phase 2 clinical trial of 125 patients in the United States and beyond “we tripled the response rates,” O’Malley said. “And, not only was there better response rates, but the durability is more pronounced, and when I look at patients two years out, they’re still responding.”

The advances made possible by immunotherapy agents and clinical trials are accelerating at a rapid rate. This has O’Malley optimistic about the future. “We’re in an unprecedented time in cancer treatment and drug development,” he said. “I’m seeing things today I really didn’t think I’d live to see,”