European Cancer Congress: Immunotherapy cancer drug hailed as ‘game changer’
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
9 October 2016
Bristol-Myers Squibb
An immunotherapy drug has been described as a potential “game-changer” in promising results presented at the European Cancer Congress.
In a study of head and neck cancer, more patients taking nivolumab survived for longer compared with those who were treated with chemotherapy.
In another study, combining nivolumab with another drug shrank tumours in advanced kidney cancer patients.
Immunotherapy works by harnessing the immune system to destroy cancer cells.
Advanced head and neck cancer has very poor survival rates.
In a trial of more than 350 patients, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 36% treated with the immunotherapy drug nivolumab were alive after one year compared with 17% who received chemotherapy.
Patients also experienced fewer side effects from immunotherapy.
SOURCE
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37588541
Other related article published on the topic in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include:
Immuno-Therapy Strategies on BioMarker’s cutoff value for defining PD-L1 positive/negative patients: First-line and Second-line setting – FDA stand on BMS’s “Test-free Prescribing” in Opdivo (nivolumab) vs Merck’s “Companion Diagnostic” in Keytruda (pembrolizumab) vs Genetech’s “Complementary Diagnostics” and”Companion Diagnostic”?? in Tecentriq (atezolizumab)
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