Aldo's Interview & Publication

SYNLAB Italy

Dr Aldo Morra

Radiologist, Director of SYNLAB Euganea Medica, Padua
IRCCS SDN-SYNLAB Naples

Tremelimumab plus durvalumab retreatment and 4-year outcomes in patients with mesothelioma: a follow-up of the open label, non-randomised, phase 2 NIBIT-MESO-1 study

Lancet Respiratory Medicine – https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00043-6

What inspired your research and what did it cover?

Treatment for patients with malignant mesothelioma remains a challenge, and there is an urgent unmet need for new agents. My research was inspired by

  • the recently reported encouraging antitumor activity of the therapeutic blockade with the combination of immune checkpoints inhibitors (ICI) in early phase studies of patients with mesothelioma
  • the urgent need to investigate strategies to overcome mechanisms of resistance to ICI treatment, and
  • the necessity to identify biomarkers able to predict clinical outcome of mesothelioma patients in response to combined ICI therapy.

The clinical results of this research support the efficacy and safety of ICI retreatment in mesothelioma patients who become refractory to initial ICI treatment, and provide a basis for potential application of ICI retreatment in clinical practice.

Which aspect(s) of your research work are you particularly excited about?

This is the first extended follow-up study to examine the efficacy and safety of retreatment with a combination of ICI therapy in patients with unresectable mesothelioma. We were able to identify tumour mutational burden as a potential molecular marker to select patients with mesothelioma who might have a better outcome in response to combined immunotherapy.

Looking at the potential of your findings, what difference can they make?

For mesothelioma patients experiencing disease progression after an initial clinical benefit (i.e., partial response or stable disease) with tremelimumab and durvalumab, retreatment with this combined therapy might have a better outcome.