Nivolumab/relatlimab in melanoma: a profile of its use
Declarations
Funding The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding.
Authorship and conflict of interest A. Lee is a salaried employee of Adis International Ltd/Springer Nature and declares no relevant conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to the review and are responsible for the article content.
Ethics approval, Consent to participate, Consent for publication, Availability of data and material, Code availability Not applicable.
Additional information about this Adis Drug Review can be found here
Abstract
Nivolumab and relatlimab-rmbw (Opdualag™; hereafter referred to as nivolumab/relatlimab) is a fixed dose combination of monoclonal antibodies for infusion, which expands the number of available therapies against advanced melanoma in patients aged ≥ 12 years. Dual checkpoint inhibition of programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) by nivolumab and lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG-3) by relatlimab may stimulate an immune response against tumours. Notably, relatlimab is the first approved treatment targeting LAG-3. Nivolumab/relatlimab significantly decreased the risk of disease progression or death in comparison with nivolumab monotherapy during a phase 2/3 trial. The incidence of grade 3 or 4 adverse events was higher with nivolumab/relatlimab than with nivolumab monotherapy; however, no new safety signals were detected during the trial. As with other checkpoint inhibitors, immune-mediated reactions were reported with nivolumab/relatlimab treatment, which may be managed with treatment discontinuation or systemic immunosuppressants.
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