No Significant Signal in Adverse Events in 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 on surgical outcomes from the phase 3 CheckMate 816 trial assessing nivolumab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy (chemo) vs chemo alone as neoadjuvant treatment for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer.

During the discussion, Spicer addresses what some of the adverse events (AEs) experienced by patients were during the phase 3 trial, and how patients were able to handle them.

Jonathan Spicer: So, I think this was another surprise because usually when you add a new therapeutic, it does have accompanying side effects or [AEs].

But in this case, in this trial, there really was no significant signal with respect to [AEs], either in the pre-operative systemic therapy phase of their care and certainly not with regards to their surgical care.

If anything, there were clinically important improvements, at least numerically important improvements, in a number of outcomes, such as I mentioned the extent of lung resection required the ability to complete the surgery by minimally invasive approach and the completeness of the resection, which are all well-known variables that are important to patients and to their long-term welfare.