CHICAGO — This year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting kicks off with one of the hottest topics — immunotherapy. And long-awaited results from the phase 3 study of nivolumab (Opdivo, Bristol-Myers Squibb) in lung cancer, released today, do not disappoint.
For patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer who deteriorated after platinum-based chemotherapy, those treated with nivolumab lived an average of 3 months longer than those treated with docetaxel.
Nivolumab could become a new standard therapy for patients with previously treated lung cancer, Luis Paz-Ares, MD, from University Hospital in Madrid, said in a statement.
Topline results released in January led to approval by the US Food and Drug Administration; however, nivolumab has not yet been granted approval in Europe.
"Even 5 years ago, an effective immunotherapy for lung cancer was largely considered impossible," ASCO spokesperson Gregory Masters, MD, pointed out in a news release. "Today, we have such a treatment, and it surpasses the standard therapy both in terms of efficacy and patient quality of life," he said.
Read the full news story here.
Cite this: Nivolumab Extends Lung Cancer Survival - Medscape - May 29, 2015.
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