Ingalls Hospital is 2nd in World to Offer Immunotherapy Study for Advanced Colon Cancer

Ingalls Hospital recently became the second cancer center in the world to enroll patients in a new research study that uses immunotherapy to tap into the body’s own ability to fight advanced colorectal cancer.

Approximately 360 patients will take part in this study worldwide. So far, four patients have been enrolled at Ingalls, and all are tolerating the treatment well.

The Phase III clinical trial (NCT02788279, sponsored by Hoffman-Roche) is studying three different chemotherapy regimens –regorafenib, the standard treatment, to cobimetinib plus atezolizumab and atezolizumab monotherapy. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago in June, researchers reported that the combination of cobimetinib and atezolizumab was well tolerated and demonstrated promising results.

To enroll in the study, participants must be at least 18 years of age, have locally advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer, and have had at least two previous rounds of chemotherapy.

“Clinical trials like this one present more answers to beat cancer,” explains Mark Kozloff M.D., Medical Director of Ingalls Cancer Care. “The immune system is the body’s natural defense against disease. Cancer cells have a way of inhibiting the immune system. But immunotherapy agents help unleash the immune system’s potential to fight them off in certain types of cancer.

“These are the hot drugs in cancer care right now,” he adds. "And I’m proud to say we’ve been investigating and using these treatments at Ingalls for several years now.”

Ingalls currently offers immunotherapy treatments for malignant melanoma, certain types of lung cancer, and kidney cancer, and is investigating immunotherapy agents to treat esophageal and gastrointestinal/stomach cancers.

For more information about this and other clinical trials at Ingalls, call 708.915.HOPE