A new category of immunotherapies called checkpoint inhibitors that has been highly effective against many different cancers appears safe to use in patients with both advanced malignancies and HIV, a population excluded from earlier trials of such therapies, according to an early-phase trial.

Principal investigator Dr. Thomas Uldrick of the HIV & AIDS Malignancy Branch at the National Cancer Institute will present late breaking results from the first 17 patients on a Phase 1 study of pembrolizumab in patients with HIV and advanced cancers Friday at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s annual meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. The ongoing, multi-site study is being conducted by the NCI-funded Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network, which is headquartered at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Cancer has become the leading cause of death for people with HIV. But until now, they and their physicians have had little data to guide them on whether they can safely use powerful new anti-cancer drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Read the source article at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center