(Liver Cancer) Can Opdivo Replace Nexavar?
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This article is a summary of international medical information and is not medical advice; it cannot replace the diagnosis or treatment plan of your attending physician. The medical technologies, drug information and clinical data presented here are compiled from public literature and official statements of major Japanese medical institutions; the applicability and outcome of any therapy vary with each patient and must be assessed individually by a qualified physician.
On June 24, 2019, a global biopharmaceutical company announced results from the CheckMate-459 Phase III clinical trial evaluating "the efficacy and safety of first-line single-agent anti-PD-1 antibody Opdivo (nivolumab) therapy in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma."
The CheckMate-459 Phase III clinical trial was a multicenter randomized trial for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma in first-line treatment, randomly assigned to either single-agent Opdivo therapy or single-agent Nexavar (sorafenib) therapy. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), and secondary endpoints included progression-free survival and objective response rate.
The trial results showed that the primary endpoint of overall survival for the single-agent Opdivo group did not show superiority over the single-agent Nexavar group. Additionally, the safety profile of the single-agent Opdivo group was consistent with that observed in other clinical trials, and no new adverse events were confirmed in this trial.
Based on the CheckMate-459 trial results, Bruno Sangro stated: "It has been very difficult to improve treatment outcomes for patients with unresectable liver cancer. Since single-agent Nexavar therapy was established as the standard of care, more than 10 years have passed without progress in treatment outcomes. In the CheckMate-459 trial, while single-agent Opdivo therapy did not prove superior to single-agent Nexavar therapy, the trend toward improvement is very encouraging."
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