Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo Fails in Brain Cancer Trial

It feels sometimes as if Bristol-Myers Squibb’s checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) is a miraculous cancer drug, given the number of indications it has been approved for. And in many ways it is. However, it apparently can’t do everything, and the company announced today that the drug failed to meet its primary endpoint in patients with newly diagnosed O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT)-unmethylated glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of brain cancer. The drug was being evaluated in the Phase III CheckMate -498 trial with radiation compared to temozolomide plus radiation in this patient population. Temozolomide is an oral chemotherapy drug. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS).