Opdivo for glioblastoma – pro
The evidence to support using Opdivo for glioblastoma, alone of witrh Avastin, is very preiminary. The adverse event profile of nivolumab with or without ipilimumab in patients with glioblastoma was consistent with studies in other tumors and 6 month overall survival data is encouraging, a study presented at the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in May 2015. It showed that the overall survival rate at 6 months was 75% (70% in the nivolumab arm and 80% in the nivolumab plus ipilimumab arm). At 9 months, the overall survival rate was 60% in both arms.
Single-agent nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated encouraging signs of activity with a mild adverse event (AE) profile for patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), according to findings from the open-label CheckMate-143 trial presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.
In the multi-cohort study, which also explored the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab, the 12-month overall survival (OS) rate was 40% with nivolumab monotherapy (95% CI, 12.3-67.0). Median OS was 10.5 months (95% CI, 4.1-not evaluated) and there were no grade 3/4 adverse events (AEs).
Based on these findings, a phase III cohort has been opened within CheckMate-143 that will compare single-agent nivolumab with bevacizumab (Avastin) for patients with recurrent GBM. This cohort of the study could serve as a registration study for the PD-1 inhibitor in GBM.
Reardon DA, Sampson JH, Sahebjam S, et al. Safety and activity of nivolumab (nivo) monotherapy and nivo in combination with ipilimumab (ipi) in recurrent glioblastoma (GBM): Updated results from checkmate-143. J Clin Oncol. 2016;34 (suppl; abstr 2014). – See more at: http://www.onclive.com/conference-coverage/asco-2016/nivolumab-effective-in-early-stage-study-for-glioblastoma#sthash.KWsVD35f.dpuf
Sampson JH, Vlahovic G, Sahebjam S, et al. Preliminary safety and activity of nivolumab and its combination with ipilimumab in recurrent glioblastoma (GBM): CHECKMATE-143. J Clin Oncol. 2015:33;(suppl; abstr 3010).
Shiao-Pei Weathers and Mark R. Gilbert, Advances in treating glioblastoma. F1000Prime Rep. 2014; 6: 46.