Nivolumab — perspectives in cancer treatment

Abstract

Blockade of the immune checkpoint PD-1 is a new and promising strategy for the treatment of advanced cancers. The introduction of nivolumab has improved prognosis in a large group of cancer patients. Currently, it is possible to obtain results of treatment that have not previously been observed in cancer immunotherapy. It seems that nivolumab has less treatment toxicity than many conventional chemo-therapeutics or ipilimumab. Nivolumab is currently registered in oncology patients with advanced melanoma, kidney cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. In the near future the scope of registration of the drug will probably expand to other indications in malignant tumours. More details on the activity of the drug used in a variety of schemes and various types of cancer, as well as predictive factors of therapy, will be available after the announcement of further results of ongoing numerous clinical studies using nivolumab.