Providers Hopeful of Immunotherapy to Treat Early-Stage Cancer

Many experts expect immunotherapy to positively impact the treatment landscape for patients with earlier-stage cancers in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and perioperative settings, according to a new multinational survey.

Bristol Myers Squibb commissioned the survey of over 250 oncologists, surgeons, and specialists in the US, Japan, Germany, Italy, and France who currently treat patients with stage 1 through stage 3 disease across eight different types of cancer. 

Overall, healthcare providers (HCPs) were more satisfied with current cancer treatments, but they do not always use treatment before or after surgery. 

The majority of HCPs stated that they “sometimes” use neoadjuvant (62 percent), adjuvant (55 percent), or perioperative(54 percent) treatments for patients with earlier stages of cancer. 

And 67 percent of respondents were “fairly” or “very” satisfied with current neoadjuvant, adjuvant (70 percent), and perioperative (61 percent) treatment options as a whole. 

But satisfaction varied by tumor type, researchers stated.

For example, 87 percent of respondents were satisfied with neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment options for breast cancer. And 77 percent of respondents were satisfied with the adjuvant treatment options for melanoma.  

Satisfaction was notably lower in kidney and liver cancers, indicating the need for additional research in these areas. 

Most respondents were hopeful of the potential of immunotherapy in earlier-stage cancers, but they noted more experience using chemotherapy than immunotherapy.

For example, 85 percent, 86 percent, and 73 percent of respondents reported experience with chemotherapy treatments for neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and perioperative, respectively. Meanwhile, 48 percent of respondents had experience with immunotherapy treatment for neoadjuvant treatment, and 65 percent and 39 percent of respondents had experience with immunotherapy for adjuvant and perioperative treatments, respectively.

But 92 percent of HCPs surveyed see the greatest potential for positive outcomes with immunotherapy in melanoma while 89 percent of respondents see the greatest potential in lung cancer.

Finally, 64 percent of HCPs stated the most important potential benefits of immunotherapy were longer overall survival, increased disease-free survival (57 percent), and quality of life (54 percent).

“Over the past decade, immunotherapy research has evolved, starting with a focus on metastatic cancers, and more recently, expanding to explore the role of these treatments in earlier stages of the disease,” Jonathan Cheng, senior vice president and head of oncology development at Bristol Myers Squibb, said in the survey. 

“We hope that by addressing cancer in earlier stages, when the immune system may be more responsive and intact, immunotherapy may have the potential to prevent recurrence and ultimately lead to patients living longer,” Cheng concluded.