Industry Session Breakfast: Immune checkpoints: Early Gilvetmab Experience and Pathways to Future Applications

For many cancer patients throughout history, a diagnosis of metastatic disease carries the implication of incurability. However, in human oncology, in the era of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, some patients with metastatic disease are developing effective anti-tumor responses resulting in complete and durable tumor regression. Gilvetmab, a caninized anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, is currently the only ICI with USDA conditional approval in dogs. For our veterinary patients to fully benefit from ICI therapy, several key factors require further understanding, including how ICIs work, how they should be used, what adverse events (AEs) are possible and how to manage AEs. Of equal importance--as only a minority (15-40%) of humans (and likely veterinary patients) have meaningful responses to single agent ICI-- how do we identify which cancers and which patients are likely to respond; what biomarkers or predictors of response (and indeed AEs) are important; and what potential approaches are being investigated that could translate this ‘minority response’ to a ‘majority response’? This presentation will focus on these important questions and the current state of Gilvetmab use in canine patients.