The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Opdivo (nivolumab), in combination with certain types of chemotherapy, for the initial treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer and esophageal adenocarcinoma, according to a news release.
The FDA said this is the first FDA-approved immunotherapy for the first-line treatment of gastric cancer.
There are approximately 28,000 new diagnoses of gastric cancer each year in the United States. With currently available therapy, overall survival is generally poor; the rate of cure with resection is very low and the survival rate for all stages is 32%. The 5-year survival rate for advanced or metastatic gastric cancer is 5%.
Opdivo is a monoclonal antibody that inhibits tumor growth by enhancing T-cell function. Its efficacy was evaluated in a randomized, multicenter, open-label trial of 1,581 patients with previously untreated advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer and esophageal adenocarcinoma. The 789 patients who received Opdivo in combination with chemotherapy, on average, lived longer than the 792 patients who received chemotherapy alone. Median survival was 13.8 months for patients who received Opdivo plus chemotherapy compared to 11.6 months for patients who received chemotherapy alone.
The FDA granted approval to Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.
