| | | | |

Yervoy and Opdivo for Mesothelioma: Three Year Results Still Look Good

ByAlex Strauss

Yervoy and Opdivo for mesotheliomaThree years after the last patients enrolled in the clinical trial of Yervoy and Opdivo for mesothelioma, survival results still look promising for this immunotherapy treatment. 

Researchers presented an update of the CheckMate 743 trial at the recent virtual conference of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). The team found that more than 23% of patients on Yervoy and Opdivo for mesothelioma were still alive at three years. Only 15% of the chemotherapy group were still living. 

Immunotherapy for Malignant Mesothelioma

Alimta (pemetrexed) was the first drug to receive FDA approval for mesothelioma chemotherapy. The FDA approved it in 2004. 

Before Alimta, patients had even fewer options that they do today. Most mesothelioma patients now start treatment with a combination of Alimta and a platinum drug like cisplatin or carboplatin. 

But Yervoy and Opdivo for mesothelioma was a breakthrough. The FDA approved the combination for first-line treatment of pleural mesothelioma in October 2020.  It was the first new drug treatment approved for mesothelioma in 15 years. 

The FDA based the approval on the results of the CheckMate 743 trial. Researchers showed how Yervoy (ipilimumab) and Opdivo (nivolumab) work together to fight mesothelioma. One increases the number of cancer-killing immune cells in a tumor and the other makes cancer cells more susceptible to attack. 

Updated Results on Yervoy and Opdivo for Mesothelioma

The CheckMate 743 trial of Yervoy and Opdivo for mesothelioma involved 605 patients from 103 hospitals around the world. All patients had unresectable pleural mesothelioma. Researchers randomly assigned patients to receive either the immunotherapy drugs or standard chemotherapy. 

The combination worked especially well for people with the non-epithelioid subtype of mesothelioma. These people do not usually respond well to chemotherapy. But with the immunotherapy regimen, non-epithelioid patients had a median overall survival of 18.1 months. Non-epithelioid patients on chemotherapy survived for a median of just 8.8 months. 

It has now been at least three years since the last CheckMate 743 patients received treatment in 2018. The researchers presented an update at ESMO’s virtual conference last week. 

Twenty-three percent of those who received Yervoy and Opdivo for mesothelioma lived for at least three years. This was true even though patients had been off the therapy for a year. The chemotherapy group had a 3-year overall survival of 15.2 percent. 

“With an additional 12 months of follow-up, these data from CheckMate743 confirm that nivolumab/ipilimumab is the standard of care for unresectable mesothelioma, regardless of histology,” said lead study author Solange Peters, MD, PhD. Dr. Peters is head of the Medical Oncology Service and chair of Thoracic Oncology in the Oncology Department at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland.

The study also suggested that mesothelioma patients with a certain combination of genes linked to inflammation survived longer than other patients. 

Sources:

Peters, S, et al, LBA65 – First-line nivolumab (NIVO) plus ipilimumab (IPI) vs chemotherapy (chemo) in patients (pts) with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM): 3-year update from CheckMate 743, ESMO Virtual Conference presentation, https://oncologypro.esmo.org/meeting-resources/esmo-congress-2021/first-line-nivolumab-nivo-plus-ipilimumab-ipi-vs-chemotherapy-chemo-in-patients-pts-with-unresectable-malignant-pleural-mesothelioma-mpm

Hergert, J, “Frontline Nivolumab/Ipilimumab Maintains OS Benefit Across Subgroups in Unresectable Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma”, September 17, 2021, OncLive, https://www.onclive.com/view/frontline-nivolumab-ipilimumab-maintains-os-benefit-across-subgroups-in-unresectable-malignant-pleural-mesothelioma

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Doctors Describe "Concrete Therapeutic Approach" for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A team of medical researchers in Italy have achieved what they are calling “excellent” tumor control and survival results in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients using a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Caused by exposure to asbestos, mesothelioma typically spreads quickly across the lung-encasing membrane called the pleura. There is no known cure but treatments are improving. In the current prospective study, 20 malignant pleural mesothelioma patients underwent radical pleurectomy/decortication followed by high doses of radiation. After surgeons removed as much of the visible mesothelioma tumor and surrounding tissue as possible, patients received 50Gy of radiation to the effected side of their chest, delivered in 25 fractions. Regions of particular concern for mesothelioma regrowth got an extra radiation “boost” to…

  • |

    Mesothelioma Still Rising Despite Ban in Ireland

    ByAlex Strauss

    A study in Ireland confirms that it can take many years for a ban on asbestos to have a measurable impact on a country’s rates of malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is the most serious of a list of diseases – including lung cancer, pleural plaques, asbestosis, and others – linked with exposure to asbestos dust. Affecting the linings around the lungs and other organs, mesothelioma is often resistant to most cancer treatments and may be fatal within a year of diagnosis. According to the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, Ireland is one of 55 countries that have enacted some type of asbestos ban. However, although Ireland banned asbestos in 2000, a new study published in Cancer Epidemiology shows that incidence of the…

  • | |

    Does Radiotherapy Reduce Mesothelioma Pain?

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new study says there is not enough evidence to support the use of radiotherapy for the treatment of pain associated with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland reviewed a range of past studies on mesothelioma pain and radiotherapy by searching databases that date back as far as 1974. To be eligible to be included in their review, the study had to focus on malignant pleural mesothelioma and radiotherapy given “with the intent of improving pain”. The study also had to report doses and fractionation of the radiotherapy and how the pain responded. In all, the researchers found eight studies on mesothelioma pain and radiotherapy that met the criteria. Two of the studies were prospective…

  • |

    Website Aims to Protect Homeowners from Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Australia’s Cancer Council is trying to educate home renovators about their risk for mesothelioma with a new e-learning course. Australia has one of the highest per capita rates of mesothelioma in the world, largely because of several asbestos mining operations that were once located there. Although asbestos has been banned from building products in Australia since 1989, asbestos-linked diseases like mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis continue to pose a serious health concern. While mesothelioma has traditionally occurred among people exposed to asbestos on the job, Australia is now bracing for another “wave” of mesothelioma victims among homeowners who encounter asbestos while doing their own renovation projects. Cancer Council Australia has launched “kNOw asbestos in your home” in an effort to…

  • |

    Ape Virus Shrinks Mesothelioma Tumors in Lab

    ByAlex Strauss

    A virus that causes leukemia in gibbon apes may have the power to help fight malignant mesothelioma in people. Gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) has been tested for years as a viral vector, a carrier of therapeutic genetic information, in the treatment of various human illnesses, including cancer. A new study in Japan compared GALV with a leukemia virus derived from mice to see which carrier communicated most efficiently with mesothelioma cells. While both types of viruses replicated in most of the mesothelioma cell lines tested, the mouse-derived virus was not effective in a mesothelioma cell line called ACC-MESO-1. In this cell line, only the GALV spread efficiently both in culture and in mice that had been given human mesothelioma…

  • | |

    Radiotherapy for Mesothelioma: Better But Still Limited

    ByAlex Strauss

    A form of highly-targeted radiation therapy for mesothelioma is better than it used to be, but is still risky. That is the message of a recent article on intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) in Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Author Kenneth E. Rosenzweig, MD, a Radiation Oncologist with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, reviewed recent studies on IMRT and mesothelioma. He concludes that, while the “troubling toxicity” associated with IMRT when it was first introduced has not been entirely eliminated, the fact that clinicians now have more experience with it is making a positive difference for mesothelioma patients. Before targeted therapies like IMRT were available, high-dose radiation was not usually a feasible option for mesothelioma since the irregular shape…