Nivolumab benefits patients with melanoma treated beyond progression

Source: Healio, June 2017

Patients with melanoma continued to experience tumor response to nivolumab monotherapy when treated beyond progression, according to a pooled analysis of data from the CheckMate 066 and CheckMate 067 studies.

“The results of this analysis suggest that continued treatment with nivolumab [Opdivo, Bristol-Myers Squibb] may be an option to achieve further apparent clinical benefit in some patients with advanced melanoma,” Georgina V. Long, PhD, BSc, MBBS, FRACP, chair of melanoma medical oncology and translational research at Melanoma Institute Australia and Royal North Shore Hospital of The University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues wrote.

ivolumab — a PD-1 inhibitor — monotherapy conferred better OS and PFS than dacarbazine among treatment-naive patients with BRAF wild-type melanoma in the CheckMate 066 study, and improved PFS and objective response rate among treatment-naive patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma over ipilimumab (Yervoy, Bristol-Myers Squibb) in the CheckMate 067 study.