Five-Year Outcomes: First-Line Nivolumab vs Dacarbazine in Advanced BRAF Wild-Type Melanoma

Source: The ASCO Post, October 2020

The 5-year outcomes of the CheckMate 066 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Caroline Robert, MD, PhD, and colleagues, showed continued benefit of first-line nivolumab vs dacarbazine in advanced BRAF wild-type melanoma. The results add to data indicating that nivolumab can be associated with long-term survival in this setting.

Study Details

In the double-blind trial, 418 patients with unresectable stage III/IV disease were randomly assigned to receive nivolumab at 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks (n = 210) or dacarbazine at 1,000 mg/m2 (n = 208) every 3 weeks. Treatment continued until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Treatment after disease progression was permitted for patients who continued to have clinical benefit. The primary endpoint was overall survival; secondary endpoints included progression-free survival and objective response rate.

In a 3-year analysis, median overall survival was 37.5 months in the nivolumab group vs 11.2 months in the dacarbazine group, with 3-year rates of 52% vs 22%.