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Subcutaneous injection of the immunotherapy nivolumab (brand name Opdivo) is noninferior to intravenous delivery and dramatically reduces treatment time in patients with renal cell carcinoma, as seen in the results of a large phase 3 clinical trial reported today. "The burden of treatment felt by cancer patients is tremendous. If nivolumab can be given as a subcutaneous injection instead of an intravenous infusion, their treatment experience will be significantly improved," says Dr. George. "Instead of one hour in an infusion chair, they will get the injection done in five minutes." The clinical trial began in May 2021, randomizing 495 patients...

Researchers have concluded their phase 2 trial of chemotherapy in combination with the drugs nivolumab, and regorafenib. The findings suggest that regorafenib and nivolumab with chemotherapy is safe and demonstrates some anti-tumor activity in patients with advanced oesophagogastric cancer. Based on these results, a randomized phase 3 clinical trial of the combination is planned. In previous studies, each of the drugs has demonstrated potential effectiveness against oesophagogastric adenocarcinoma. Combining these agents was expected to enhance the overall efficacy of the treatment, potentially providing better results. Despite the initial benefits of immunotherapy (like nivolumab) and chemotherapy in treating oesophagogastric cancer, many...

A team have evaluated that the dual immunotherapy, PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab and CTLA-4 targeting drug ipilimumab, is effective in treating recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). NPC is often diagnosed at a late stage where patients present with metastatic disease and have increased chance of recurrence. The current, standard treatment for this group of patients is chemotherapy. The team initiated a single-arm, phase 2 trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of combination nivolumab and ipilimumab in 40 patients with metastatic and/or recurrent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated NPC in 2017. EBV is a virus associated with NPC. Patients who...

“THERE is no treatment.” This is the conclusion of an Egyptian papyrus, written around 3000BC, that is the oldest known description of the scourge that is now called “cancer”. And so, more or less, it remained until the 20th century, for merely excising a tumour by surgery rarely eliminates it. Only when doctors worked out how to back up the surgeon’s knife with drugs and radiation did cancer begin to succumb to treatment—albeit, to start with, in a pretty crude fashion. Now, however, that crudeness is rapidly giving way to sophistication, as a new wave of cancer treatments comes to...