Mesothelioma

For patients with relapsed malignant mesothelioma, nivolumab (Opdivo) monotherapy is an effective treatment option, according to preliminary results of the phase 3 CONFIRM study, presented at the 2021 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer meeting.

On October 2, 2020, the FDA approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo; Bristol Myers Squibb), a PD-1 inhibitor, and ipilimumab (Yervoy; Bristol Myers Squibb), a CTLA-4 inhibitor, for first-line treatment of adults with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Chicago, IL—Immunotherapy holds promise as second-line or third-line treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer with increasing incidence. Early findings from the ongoing, phase 2 MAPS-2 clinical trial showed that immunotherapy slowed the growth of malignant pleural mesothelioma after relapse, reported lead investigator Arnaud Scherpereel, MD, PhD, Head, Pulmonary and Thoracic Oncology Department, University Hospital of Lille, France, at the 2017 ASCO annual meeting. MAPS-2 is the largest clinical trial to date of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.