Dr. Welling on CheckMate-040 Trial of Nivolumab in HCC

Theodore H. Welling, MD, associate professor of surgery, director of the Liver Tumor Program at Perlmutter Cancer Center of NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the purpose of the CheckMate-040 trial, which explored nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. (HCC).

The phase I/II trial demonstrated the safety and efficacy findings of nivolumab in patients who were previously exposed to sorafenib (Nexavar) and failed or ultimately progressed on sorafenib versus patients who were naïve to sorafenib, Welling explains. Currently, sorafenib is the only medicine approved for the frontline treatment of patients with HCC.

The anti—PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab is designed to block the PD-1 pathway, allowing the immune system theoretically to increase its response—or at least have a return of response—in what could otherwise be exhausted immune cells, Welling adds.

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