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How long does Opdivo prolong life and what’s its success rate?

Medically reviewed by Philip Thornton, DipPharm. Last updated on July 19, 2022.

What's the overall survival rate and duration of survival in patients treated with Opdivo? How many people respond to treatment with Opdivo - what's the objective response rate (ORR)?

Official answer

by Drugs.com

Opdivo (nivolumab) is an immunotherapy used to treat a wide variety of cancer types. How long treatment with this monoclonal antibody prolongs or extends life depends on the type and stage of cancer it is used to treat.

In some situations Opdivo will prolong life for longer when used in combination with other medications, while in others it is better used alone. In other types of cancer it provides no survival benefit over existing therapies, but patients may be more likely to respond to treatment with Opdivo than to treatment it was compared against.

How long Opdivo prolongs life and how successful it is at treating patients with cancer is typically measured in clinical trials by looking at overall rates of patient survival, and duration of patient survival/response or progression-free survival. How successful Opdivo is as a treatment is also measured in clinical trials by looking at the number of patients who respond to the therapy with either complete or partial responses, which is known as the objective response rate (ORR)

The table below outlines by cancer type how long Opdivo prolongs survival and how many patients respond to treatment according to the results of key clinical trials used to gain approval of this drug.

Cancer Type
(Trial name)		 Survival rates and duration of survival Percentage of people that had a complete or partial response to treatment
(Objective response rate, ORR)
Melanoma - unresectable or metastatic
(CheckMate-037)		 Ongoing response
  • Opdivo: 87% had ongoing responses ranging from 2.6+ to 10+ months
  • Opdivo: 13/38 had ongoing responses of ≥ 6 months


Median duration of overall survival

  • Opdivo: 15.7 months (95% CI: 12.9, 19.9)
    vs
    Dacarbazine or paclitaxel + carboplatin: 14.4 months (95% CI: 11.7, 18.2) (HR 0.95; 95.54% CI: 0.73, 1.24)
 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo: 31·7% (95% CI 23·5-40·8)
    vs
    Dacarbazine or paclitaxel + carboplatin: 10·6%, 95% CI 3·5-23·1)
Melanoma - previously untreated
(CheckMate-066)		 Overall survival rate
  • Opdivo: 72.9% (95% CI 65.5-78.9)
    vs
    Dacarbazine: 42.1% (95% CI 33.0-50.9)
 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo: 40% (95% CI, 33.3 to 47.0)
    vs
    Dacarbazine: 13.9% (95% CI, 9.5 to 19.4)
Melanoma - previously untreated, unresectable or metastatic
(CheckMate-067)		 Median duration of overall survival
  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 60+ months
    vs
    Opdivo: 36.9 months
    vs
    Yervoy: 19.9 months

Overall survival rate

  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 52%
    vs
    Opdivo: 44%
    vs
    Yervoy: 26%
 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 58%
    vs
    Opdivo: 45%
    vs
    Yervoy: 19%
Melanoma - adjuvant treatment for completely resected Stage IIIB/C or Stage IV disease
(CheckMate-238)		 Recurrence free survival (minimum 4 years’ follow up)
  • Opdivo: 51·7% (95% CI 46·8-56·3)
    vs
    Yervoy: 41.2% (95% CI36.4-45.9)
Non-small cell lung cancer - metastatic with PD-L1 expression level of ≥ 1%
(CheckMate-227)		 Median duration of overall survival
  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 17.1 months (95% CI 15.0-20.1)
    vs
    Chemotherapy: 14.9 months (95% CI 12.7-16.7)

Overall survival rate

  • Opdivo: 40% at 2 years
    vs
    Chemotherapy: 32.8%
Non-small cell lung cancer - first-line treatment of metastatic or recurrent disease
(CheckMate-9LA)		 Median duration of overall survival
(minimum 12.7 months’ follow up)
  • Opdivo + Yervoy + chemotherapy: 15.6 months
    vs
    Chemotherapy: 10.9 months (HR 0.66, 95% CI: 0.55–0.80)

Overall survival rate

  • Opdivo + Yervoy + chemotherapy: 63% at 1 year
    vs
    Chemotherapy: 47%
 Overall response rate
  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 38% (95% CI 33-43)
    vs
    Chemotherapy: 25% (95% CI 21-30)
Non-small cell lung cancer - second-line treatment of metastatic disease
(CheckMate-017, CheckMate-057)		 Overall survival rate
(minimum 3 years’ follow up)
  • Opdivo: 17% (95% CI 14-21)
    vs
    Docetaxel: 8% (95% CI 6-11)


Patients with liver metastasis also had improved overall survival rates when treated with Opdivo compared with docetaxel
Non-small cell lung cancer - neoadjuvant treatment of resectable disease
(CheckMate-816)

Median event-free survival
(minimum 21 months’ follow up)

  • Opdivo + platinum doublet chemotherapy: 31.6 months (95% CI 30.2-not reached)
    vs
    Platinum-doublet chemotherapy: 20.8 months (95% CI 14.0-26.7)
    (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.45, 0.87)

Overall survival rate

  • Overall survival was not statistically significant between Opdivo + platinum doublet chemotherapy recipients and patients who received platinum doublet chemotherapy alone
Malignant pleural mesothelioma
(CheckMate-743)		 Median duration of overall survival
  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 18.1 months (95% CI 16.8, 21.5)
    vs
    Chemotherapy: 14.1 months (95% CI 12.5, 16.2)

Median progression-free survival

  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 6.8 months (95% CI 5.6, 7.4)
    vs
    Chemotherapy: 7.2 months (95% CI 6.9, 8.1)
Renal cell carcinoma - advanced
(CheckMate-025)		 Median duration of overall survival
  • Opdivo: 25.8 months (95% CI 22.2-29.8)
    vs
    Everolimus: 19.7 months (95% CI 17.6-22.1)

Progression-free survival was also improved in the Opdivo group

 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo: 23%
    vs
    Everolimus: 4%
Renal cell carcinoma - previously untreated
(CheckMate-214)		 Overall survival rate
  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 75% (95% CI 70-80) at 18 months
    vs
    Sutent (sunitinib) 60% (95% CI 55-65)

Median duration of overall survival

  • Opdivo + Yervoy: not reached
    vs
    Sutent: 26 months (P ﹤0.001)
Progression-free survival
  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 11.6 months
    vs
    Sutent: 8.4 (P = 0.03)
 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo + Yervoy: 42%
    vs
    Sutent (sunitinib) 27% (P ﹤0.001)
Renal cell carcinoma - advanced, previously untreated
(CheckMate-9ER)		 Overall survival rate
  • Overall survival was not reached in either the Opdivo + Cabometyx (cabozantinib) group or the Sutent group during the 18.1 months median follow up period
Median duration of response
  • Opdivo + Cabometyx: 20.2 months (95% CI 17.3, not reached)
    vs
    Sutent: 11.5 months (95% CI 8.3, 18.4)
Median progression-free survival
  • Opdivo + Cabometyx: 16.6 months
    vs
    Sutent: 8.3 months (P <0.0001)
 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo + Cabometyx: 55.7%
    vs
    Sutent 27.1% (P ﹤0.0001)
Classical Hodgkin lymphoma
(CheckMate-205)		 Median duration of response
  • Opdivo: 16.6 months (95% CI 13.2-20.3)

Median progression-free survival

  • Opdivo: 14.7 months (95% CI 11.3-18.5)
Of the evaluable patients in the trial treated past conventional disease progression, 61% had stable or further reduced target tumor burdens		 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo: 69% across all three treatment groups (95% CI 63-75)
Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck - recurrent or metastatic disease
(CheckMate-141)		 Overall survival rate
  • Opdivo: 16.9% at 24 months
    vs
    Docetaxel, methotrexate or Erbitux (cetuximab): 6%

Overall survival benefit was not impacted by PD-L1 expression of human papilloma virus (HPV) status.

Median duration of overall survival
  • Opdivo: 7.5 months (95% CI 5.5, 9.1) at the interim analysis
    vs
    Docetaxel, methotrexate or Erbitux (cetuximab): 5.1 month (95% CI 4.0, 6.0)
 Objective response rates were similar between the two treatment groups.
Urothelial Carcinoma - locally advanced or metastatic disease
(CheckMate-275)		 Median overall survival
(minimum 37 months’ follow up)
  • Opdivo: 8.6 months (95% CI 6.1-11.3)

Median progression-free survival

  • Opdivo: 1.9 months (95% CI 1.9-2.3)
 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo: 20.7% (16.1-26.1)
Urothelial Carcinoma - adjuvant therapy in high-risk patients following surgery
(CheckMate-274)		 Median disease-free survival
(intention to treat population)
  • Opdivo: 20.8 months (95% CI 16.5-27.6)
    vs
    Placebo: 10.8 months (95% CI 8.3-13.9)

(PD-L1≥1% population)

  • Opdivo: not reached (95% CI 21.2-not estimable)
    vs
    Placebo: 8.4 months (95% CI 5.6-21.2)
Colorectal cancer - microsatellite instability-high or mismatched repair deficient metastatic disease
(CheckMate-142)		 Proportion of responders with ≥ 12 months response duration
  • Opdivo: 82%
    vs
    Opdivo + Yervoy: 77%
 Overall response rate
(minimum of 27.5 and 33.7 months’ follow up, respectively)
  • Opdivo: 60% (95% CI 50, 69)
    vs
    Opdivo + Yervoy: 38% (95% CI 27, 50)
Hepatocellular carcinoma
(CheckMate-040)		 Overall survival rate
  • Opdivo + Yervoy every 3 weeks (4 doses) then Opdivo every 2 weeks (Arm A): 61% (95% CI 46-72) at 12 months and 48% (95% CI 32-61) at 24 months

Medial duration of overall survival

  • Opdivo + Yervoy every 3 weeks (4 doses) then Opdivo every 2 weeks (Arm A): Not reached in patients with complete or partial responses, 14.5 months (95% CI 8.4-29.6) in patients with stable disease and 8.3 months (95% CI 6.6-10.8)
 Objective response rate
  • Opdivo + Yervoy every 3 weeks (4 doses) then Opdivo every 2 weeks (Arm A): 32% (95% CI 20-47)
Esophageal squamous cell cancer
(ATTRACTION-3)		 Median duration of overall survival
  • Opdivo: 10.9 months (95% CI 9.2-13.3)
    vs
    Docetaxel or paclitaxel: 8.4 months (95% CI 7.2-9.9)

Median progression-free survival

  • Opdivo: 1.7 months (95% CI 1.5, 2.7)
    vs
    Docetaxel or paclitaxel: 3.4 months (95% CI 3.0, 4.2)
 Overall response rate
  • Opdivo: 19.3% (95% CI 13.7, 26.0)
    vs
    Docetaxel or paclitaxel: 21.5% (95% CI 15.4, 28.8)
Esophageal squamous cell cancer - first-line treatment of unresectable advanced or metastatic disease
(CheckMate-648)

Median duration of overall survival
All randomized patients

  • Opdivo + cisplatin + fluorouracil: 13.2 months (95% CI 11.1-15.7)
    vs
    Opdivo + Yervoy: 12.8 months (95% CI 11.3-15.5)
    vs
    Cisplatin + fluorouracil: 10.7 months (95% CI 9.4-11.9)

Median progression-free survival

  • There was no statistically significant difference in median progression-free survival among the groups when the results from all randomized patients were included
 Overall response rate
All randomized patients
  • Opdivo + cisplatin + fluorouracil: 47.4% (95% CI 41.8-53.0)
    vs
    Opdivo + Yervoy: 27.7% (95% CI 22.9-32.9)
    vs
    Cisplatin + fluorouracil: 26.9% (95% CI 22.1-32.0)
Gastric cancer - previously untreated advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer and esophageal adenocarcinoma
(CheckMate-649)

Median duration of overall survival
Patients whose tumours expressed PD-L1 CPS ≥ 5

  • Opdivo + mFOLFOX6 (fluorouracil, leucovorin and oxaliplatin) or CapeOX (capecitabine and oxaliplatin): 14.4 months (95% CI 13.1, 16.2)
    vs
    mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 11.1 months (95% CI 10.0, 12.1), (p<0.0001)

All randomized patients

  • Opdivo + mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 13.8 months (95% CI 12.6, 14.6)
    vs
    mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 11.6 months (95% CI 10.9, 12.5), (p=0.0002)

Median progression-free survival
Patients whose tumours expressed PD-L1 CPS ≥ 5

  • Opdivo + mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 7.7 months (95% CI 7.0, 9.2)
    vs
    mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 6.0 months (95% CI 5.6, 6.9), (p<0.0001)
 Overall response rate
Patients whose tumours expressed PD-L1 CPS ≥ 5
  • Opdivo + mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 237 (50%) (95% CI 46, 55)
    vs
    mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 138 (38%) (95% CI 34, 43)

All randomized patients

  • Opdivo + mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 370 (47%) (95% CI 43, 50)
    vs
    mFOLFOX6 or CapeOX: 293 (37%) (95% CI 34, 40)
Gastric cancer - completely resected esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer
(CheckMate-577)		 Median disease free survival
  • Opdivo: 22.4 months (95% CI 16.6, 34.0)
    vs
    Placebo: 11.0 months (95% CI 8.3, 14.3) (p=0.0003)

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