USFDA approves expanded use of Bristol Myers immunotherapy for cancer

The approval marks the first-and-only immunotherapy-based treatment for use before surgery for non-small cell lung cancer

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New Delhi: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Opdivo (nivolumab) 360 mg (injection for intravenous use) from Bristol Myers Squibb in combination with platinum-doublet chemotherapy every three weeks for three cycles for adult patients with resectable (tumors ≥4 cm or node positive) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the neoadjuvant setting.
Opdivo plus chemotherapy is approved regardless of PD-L1 status. The approval is based on the CheckMate -816 trial, the first positive Phase 3 trial of an immunotherapy-based combination used before surgery for resectable NSCLC. The primary endpoints included event-free survival (EFS) and pathologic complete response (pCR), which were evaluated using independent blinded review, and an additional efficacy outcome measure was overall survival (OS). The study compared Opdivo plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy (n=179) to platinum-doublet chemotherapy alone (n=179).
“Given the rates of disease recurrence in patients with resectable NSCLC, additional treatment options are needed that can be given before surgery to help improve the chance of successful surgical treatment and support the goal of reducing the risk of cancer returning,” said Mark Awad, MD, PhD, CheckMate -816 study investigator and clinical director of the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“The approval of nivolumab with platinum-doublet chemotherapy marks a turning point in how we treat resectable NSCLC and it enables us to use immunotherapy and chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment for patients before surgery. Today’s announcement reinforces the need to increase the rates of NSCLC screening and early detection, and for patients to discuss treatment options with their providers,” he added.