First-Line Combo Immunotherapy Improves PFS in High TMB Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with chemotherapy in treatment-naïve patients with high tumor mutation burden (TMB) non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), the manufacturer of both immunotherapies, announced the preliminary findings from part 1a of the phase III CheckMate-227 trial in a press release. The company did not report any further data.

“TMB has emerged as an important biomarker for the activity of immunotherapy. For the first time, this phase III study shows superior PFS with first-line combination immunotherapy in a predefined population of NSCLC patients with high TMB,” study investigator Matthew D. Hellmann, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said in a statement. “CheckMate-227 showed that TMB is an important, independent predictive biomarker that can identify a population of first-line NSCLC patients who may benefit from the nivolumab plus ipilimumab combination.”

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