Pharmacists Can Help Patients with Melanoma Monitor Immune-Related Adverse Events When Starting Newly Approved Immunotherapies
Source: Pharmacy Times, April 2023
Julia Stevens, PharmD, BCOP, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist – Ambulatory Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, discusses recent developments and patient considerations for 2 recent approved first-line therapies for melanoma at Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) Annual Conference 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona, from March 29 to April 1, 2023.
Julia Stevens, PharmD, BCOP: So relatlimab is more similar to ipilimumab in that it’s hitting another inhibitory checkpoint on the T-cell, essentially taking off the brakes on one of those other inhibitory signals to T-cell proliferation activation. So, it works with Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) both LAG-3 and PD-1 are often overexpressed in patients who have exhausted T cells in the tumor—they have been overstimulated with all the antigens there. And so, PD-1 and LAG-3 inhibition work together by both taking away and inhibitory signal to the T cell, allowing for T cell proliferation activation.
PT Staff: Can you please discuss the method of action (MOA) of other novel therapies, such as tebentafusp?