Our increasing understanding of the molecular biological characteristics of cancer and of cancer genomics is facilitating the development of immunotherapy and molecular targeted drugs for gastric cancer. After the approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for melanoma in 2010, many different cancers have been shown to respond to such treatments. Thus, the anti-PD-1 antibody nivolumab was reported to prolong survival in 2017, and ICIs have become the mainstay of treatment development. Many clinical trials of combination therapies with cytotoxic agents and molecular-targeted agents, as well as combinations of immunotherapeutic agents acting via different mechanisms, are currently underway for each treatment line. As a result, further improvements in therapeutic outcomes for gastric cancer are anticipated in the near future.
Oesophageal cancer (OC) is the seventh most common malignancy worldwide, and there are few effective treatment options for advanced OC. Fluoropyrimidine and platinum-based chemotherapy has been the standard first-line treatment for advanced oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) but the survival outcomes are poor. Therefore, there is a need to develop new, more effective drugs. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have emerged as a new standard treatment for several malignancies. Nivolumab, a human monoclonal immunoglobulin G4 antibody that inhibits programmed cell death protein-1, has been developed for the treatment of advanced OSCC. Nivolumab monotherapy demonstrated clinical efficacy and safety in patients with OSCC in the ATTRACTION-3 trial, and was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as later-line treatment for patients with previously treated OSCC, regardless of programmed cell death protein-1 ligand expression status. Recently, the CheckMate 648 trial demonstrated the efficacy and safety of both an ICI in combination with chemotherapy, and a dual ICI combination, as first-line treatment for patients with advanced OSCC. This review discusses the current status of nivolumab combination therapy for patients with advanced OSCC, and future perspectives.
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