ICML 2021 | CheckMate 205: 5 year follow-up of nivolumab in HL
Stephen Ansell, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MI, summarizes the results from the Phase II CheckMate 205 trial (NCT02181738) assessing nivolumab, a checkpoint inhibitor, in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. Throughout all cohorts, a durable remission was observed and a five year follow-up was carried out. In a subset of patients who were able to achieve remission and subsequently discontinue treatment after a year, half remained in remission at the time of the follow-up. The durability of remission in certain patients demonstrates the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in that subset of patients. This interview took place during the 2021 International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (16-ICML).
Transcript (edited for clarity)
The CheckMate 205 study is a study looking at the efficacy of a PD-1 antibody, nivolumab and what really is becoming increasingly important is to understand how the treatment continues to work, particularly in the subset of patients where a very durable remission is seen in the long-term. Many will remember that the study showed that in all of the cohorts tested, there was a very promising and exciting response rate of about 65-75% of the patients...
The CheckMate 205 study is a study looking at the efficacy of a PD-1 antibody, nivolumab and what really is becoming increasingly important is to understand how the treatment continues to work, particularly in the subset of patients where a very durable remission is seen in the long-term. Many will remember that the study showed that in all of the cohorts tested, there was a very promising and exciting response rate of about 65-75% of the patients. And overall, the durability of that response was about 15 months. The key, though, was to see in time how patients have done over the long-term. And now with five years of follow-up, we can see that particularly in patients who have a complete response to therapy, those responses can be very durable.
And there were a subset of patients who were actually able to achieve a complete remission and then after a year of treatment, as per protocol, discontinue treatment. As we followed those patients over time, half of them have remained in remission and the other half, many of them could be retreated and the remission restored with giving back nivolumab at a time of progression.
So I think what that teaches us is that there is a subset of patients who really benefit from immune checkpoint blockade with PD-1 antibodies. These people may have very durable remissions, particularly if they have a complete remission. And some of them, remain in remission now at five years and with a hopeful eye to the future, we trust that these might be a subset of patients who are in fact cured of their disease.
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