An Overview of the Phase 3 Trial Assessing Nivolumab Plus Platinum-doublet Chemotherapy for Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Pharmacy Times interviewed Jonathan Spicer, MD, associate professor of surgery at McGill University and medical director of the McGill University Health Center Thoracic Oncology Network, on his presentation at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting about the surgical outcomes from the phase 3 CheckMate 816 trial assessing nivolumab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy (chemo) versus chemo alone as neoadjuvant treatment for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer.

Jonathan Spicer:CheckMate 816 is an open label, randomized, phase 3 study comparing conventional chemotherapy platinum doublet as a pre-operative regimen versus chemotherapy platinum blood doublet with nivolumab for patients with the operable stage 1b to 3a according to the old HACC7 staging system.

The first independent primary endpoint of pathological complete response was reported at the [American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021] by [lead author] Dr. Patrick Ford, and we saw about a 12-fold increase in the rate of complete response on an attempt to treat basis. This is a very significant finding with regards to the biological efficacy of the experimental regimen.

Now, here at ASCO, we're reporting the exploratory endpoints of surgical safety and feasibility that accompany the work. We're waiting on the event free survival, which is the second independent primary endpoint.