Nivolumab survival data
The data on nivolumab come from a pooled analysis of 5-year data on 854 patients from CheckMate 057 and CheckMate 017. The analysis was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on Jan. 15, 2021.
Both of these trials compared nivolumab with docetaxel for patients with NSCLC who had experienced disease progression with platinum-based chemotherapy.
The pooled analysis showed that the 5-year overall survival rate was more than fivefold greater with nivolumab than with docetaxel, at 13.4% versus 2.6%.
Moreover, more than 80% of patients who had not experienced progression with the immunotherapy at 2 years were still alive at 5 years. The percentage rose to more than 90% among those who had not experienced progression at 3 years.
Lead author Julie R. Brahmer, MD, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and colleagues said the results “demonstrate that nivolumab can provide long-term survival benefit with durable responses and a tolerable safety profile in patients with previously treated, advanced NSCLC.
“Furthermore, some patients appear to maintain prolonged disease control even after stopping systemic therapy,” they noted.
Dr. Hirsch commented that, although the survival rates with nivolumab were slightly lower than reported with pembrolizumab in KEYNOTE-010, they could still be “within the range.” He added that “I wouldn’t conclude that pembrolizumab is better than nivolumab.”
Many factors may account for these differences, he suggested, including differences in the patient populations or simply differences in the numbers of patients included.
For him, the “main point” of the new data from both trials is that immunotherapy has shown “tremendous progress, compared to chemotherapy.”
KEYNOTE-010 was sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme. CheckMate 017 and CheckMate057 were sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Herbst has relationships with Jun Shi Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Genentech, Merck, Pfizer, AbbVie, Biodesix, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Heat Biologics, Loxo, Nektar, NextCure, Novartis, Sanofi, Seattle Genetics, Shire, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Symphogen, Tesaro, Neon Therapeutics, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Armo Biosciences, Genmab, Halozyme, and Tocagen. Dr. Brahmer has relationships with Roche/Genentech, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lilly, Celgene, Syndax, Janssen Oncology, Merck, Amgen, Genentech, AstraZeneca, Incyte, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Revolution, and Roche/Genentech.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.