The FDA has approved a combination of immunotherapies made by Bristol-Myers Squibb to treat liver cancer.
The company announced this week that the agency gave an accelerated approval to the combo of Opdivo and Yervoy to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer. In an early stage trial, 33 percent of patients responded to the treatment combo. BSM will now have to perform further clinical trials in order to gain a final approval.
Both Opdivo and Yervoy are checkpoint inhibitor antibodies that target PD-L1 and CTLA-4 protein receptors (respectively) and help regulate the immune system.
The FDA has also granted a priority review of the Opdivo-Yervoy combo as a first line treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
Read the Reuters report.
