Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) announces positive results from an open-label randomized Phase 3 clinical trial, CheckMate-743, comparing the combination of Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab) (O+Y) to platinum-based chemo in patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) in a first-line setting. The data are being presented virtually at the World Conference on Lung Cancer Presidential Symposium.
With a minimum follow-up period of 22 months, median overall survival (OS) in the O+Y cohort was 18.1 months versus 14.1 months in the standard-of-care chemo cohort with 26% less risk of death by (hazard ratio = 0.74) (p=0.002).
Median OS in epithelioid MPM, the most common type of the cancer and the most treatable, favored O+Y 18.1 months vs. 16.5 months (with 14% less risk of death), but the separation was significantly greater in non-epithelioid MPM, a subtype with a poorer prognosis, 18.1 months vs. 8.8 months (54% less risk of death).
