Lung cancer still remains associated with a high mortality rate and more efficacious therapies are needed in order to improve the disease outcome. Nivolumab is a monoclonal antibody which blocks the programmed death-1 receptor which is currently evaluated in phase III clinical trials in advanced lung cancer. Here, we evaluate the results of a phase III study in which nivolumab efficacy and safety were compared to those of docetaxel. Nivolumab was able to improve survival and progression-free survival and exhibited a very good safety profile. Further clinical data are needed in order to better position this therapy among the existing methods. The promising results support the use of this therapy as a stand-alone approach.
Keywords: Nivolumab; PD-1; lung cancer; monoclonal antibody.