Pooled Long-Term Outcomes With Nivolumab Plus Ipilimumab or Nivolumab Alone in Patients With Advanced Melanoma

PURPOSE Nivolumab (NIVO) 1 ipilimumab (IPI) combination and NIVO monotherapy have demonstrated durable clinical benefit in patients with unresectable/ metastatic melanoma. This analysis describes long-term overall survival (OS) with the combination or monotherapy pooled across all major company-sponsored trials, as well as clinical factors associated with survival, in patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment–naïve unresectable/ metastatic melanoma. METHODS Data were pooled from six CheckMate studies in ICI treatment–naïve patients receiving NIVO 1 IPI (NIVO 1 mg/kg 1 IPI 3 mg/kg or NIVO 3 mg/kg 1 IPI 1 mg/kg) or NIVO monotherapy (3 mg/kg). OS was assessed for each treatment, as well as in select subgroups. Cox proportional multivariate analysis (MVA) and classification and regression tree (CART) analyses were performed within treatment arms. RESULTS Median follow-up for OS was 45.0 months for patients treated with NIVO 1 IPI (n 5 839) and 35.8 months for patients treated with NIVO (n 5 536). OS was longer with NIVO 1 IPI versus NIVO monotherapy (hazard ratio, 0.78 [95% CI, 0.67 to 0.91]), with 6-year OS rates of 52% versus 41%, respectively. Consistent benefit was observed in BRAF-mutant and BRAF-wild-type patients and those with normal and elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Numerical difference in OS was also observed across PD-L1 expression levels, although more pronounced with no/low PD-L1 expression. Clinical factors associated with decreased survival in both the MVA and CART analyses were LDH > upper limit of normal with either treatment, age ≥65 years with NIVO 1 IPI, and the presence of liver metastases with NIVO monotherapy. CONCLUSION In this large, pooled nonrandomized retrospective analysis, we observed that NIVO 1 IPI provides longer OS than NIVO in patients with ICI treatment–naïve advanced melanoma and identifies clinical factors that appear to be associated with survival for each treatment, which may assist with treatment decision making.