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Nivolumab, 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 the drug survived for longer compared with those who were treated with chemotherapy.

In another study, combining nivolumab with another drug shrank tumors in advanced kidney cancer patients.

Immunotherapy works by harnessing the immune system to destroy cancer cells.nivolumab-cancer-treatment

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 nivolumab (Opdivo) were alive after one year compared with 17% who received chemotherapy.

Patients also experienced fewer side effects from immunotherapy.

The benefits were more pronounced in patients whose tumors had tested positive for HPV (human papillomavirus). These patients survived an average of 9.1 months with nivolumab and 4.4 months with chemotherapy.

Normally, this group of patients are expected to live less than six months.

Early data from a study of 94 patients with advanced kidney cancer showed that the double hit of nivolumab and ipilimumab resulted in a significant reduction in the size of tumors in 40% of patients.

Of these patients, one in 10 had no sign of cancer remaining.

This compares with 5% of patients showing tumor reduction after standard therapy.

Nivolumab and ipilimumab both work by interrupting the chemical signals that cancers use to convince the immune system they are healthy tissue.

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A new study has shown that a fifth of people with advanced melanoma have no sign of tumors in their body after treatment with a pair of immunotherapy drugs.

The first survival data on using ipilimumab and nivolumab in combination showed 69% of patients, in a trial on 142, were still alive after two years.

Both drugs were developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

UK doctors leading the trial said the results were “very encouraging”.

More studies on the emerging field of immunotherapy will be presented later.

Photo Flickr

Photo Flickr

The immune system is a powerful defense against infection. However, there are many “brakes” built in to stop it attacking our own tissues.

Cancer – which is a corrupted version of healthy tissue – can take advantage of those brakes to evade assault.

Ipilimumab and nivolumab are designed to cut the brakes.

Both have become standard therapies in melanoma, but most researchers believe combination therapy will be essential.

The trial showed the survival rate after two years for ipilimumab alone was 53% and no patient’s tumors had completely disappeared.

The equivalent figures for combination therapy were 69% and 22%.

However, more than half of patients had severe to life-threatening side effects which stopped their treatment.

A much larger trial involving nearly 1,000 patients has already started releasing data, but has not run for long enough to produce survival figures.

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