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At the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting last June, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) researchers presented data on a cohort of patients not responding to the company’s approved checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo). Layering on a novel immunotherapy antibody was effective in half of patients tested, the team reported, with no major increase in side effects compared to nivolumab alone.1 Each of the therapies aims to unleash an immune cell–fueled tumor attack by targeting a molecule that normally suppresses T-cell activation—programmed death 1 (PD-1) in the case of nivolumab, and lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG-3) in the case of the new, investigational antibody. The combination worked particularly well in patients whose T cells displayed LAG-3 on their surface. “We now have a population that we can sensitize ...
