BRISTOL MYERS // ESMO . The Inmunotherapy Combination Of Nivolumab ( Opdivo ) And Ipilimumab ( Yervoy ) Now " Standard of Care " In Mesothelioma .

 

Nivolumab Plus Ipilimumab Demonstrate Continued Survival Benefit in All Subgroups in Unresectable Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma .

Utilizing Nivolumab (Opdivo) and Ipilimumab (Yervoy) in the frontline setting for patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma led to a continued survival benefit in all subgroups at 3 years, according to data from the updated phase 3 CheckMate 743 trial (NCT02899299) that were presented during the 2021 ESMO Congress .

The frontline combination of continued to demonstrate improved overall survival (OS) across subgroups compared with standard chemotherapy at 3 years in patients with, according to findings from an updated analysis of the Phase III 

At a median follow-up of 43.1 months (minimum, 35.5 months), the median OS was 18.1 months with nivolumab plus ipilimumab (n = 303) vs 14.1 months with chemotherapy (n = 302; HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.61-0.87). The 3-year OS rates were 23% vs 15%, respectively.

By histology, the median OS was 18.2 months with nivolumab/ipilimumab (n = 229) vs 16.7 months with chemotherapy (n = 226) in patients with epithelioid histology (HR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.69-1.04). 

The median OS was 18.1 months with nivolumab/ipilimumab (n = 74) vs 8.8 months with chemotherapy (n = 76) in patients with non-epithelioid histology (HR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.34-0.69).

Notably, treatment with nivolumab plus ipilimumab led to an OS benefit across all subgroups analyzed. 

Notably, the median OS was 17.3 months with nivolumab/ipilimumab vs 16.6 months with chemotherapy in the PD-L1–negative population (n = 135; HR, 0.99) and 18 months vs 13.3 months, respectively, in the PD-L1–positive population (n = 451; HR, 0.71).

“[These results from] CheckMate 743 [provide] a unique dataset [that we can use] in order to try to identify new candidates for biomarkers, but also, to potentially better understand the role of immunotherapy, specifically in mesothelioma,” said lead study author Solange Peters, MD, PhD, a professor in the Department of Oncology at Lausanne University and head of the Medical Oncology Service and chair of Thoracic Oncology in the Oncology Department at Lausanne University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, in a virtual presentation of the data. 

“With an additional 12 months of follow-up, these data from CheckMate 743 confirm that nivolumab/ipilimumab is the standard of care for unresectable mesothelioma, regardless of histology.”

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