Syed Zafar, MD Co-Authors Study on Adjuvant Nivolumab in Esophageal/Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer

Fort Myers, Fla., April 29, 2021 — Medical oncologist Syed Zafar MD, who practices at three Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS) locations in Lee County, is co-author of a new study entitled “Adjuvant Nivolumab in Resected Esophageal or Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer.” Published online April 1, 2021 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the study evaluates the use of Nivolumab, a checkpoint inhibitor, as adjuvant therapy (following surgery) in patients with esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer to decrease the incidence of recurrence.

As the study states, “Neoadjuvant (pre-operative) chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery is a widely used standard of care for patients with resectable (able to be removed by surgery), locally advanced esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer. However, the risk of recurrence after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery remains high …” The study further asserts that there is a need for adjuvant treatment following surgery to improve outcomes; however, currently none have proved effective and the standard of care after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is only surveillance.

In the NEJM abstract, Dr. Zafar and his co-authors report the results of CheckMate 577, which was a global, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial “ … that evaluated a novel approach of using a checkpoint inhibitor as adjuvant treatment after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery for esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer.”

Results of CheckMate 577 demonstrated that patients with resected esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer who received nivolumab adjuvant therapy had significantly longer disease-free survival than those who received placebo. “Among the 532 patients who received nivolumab, the median disease-free survival was 22.4 months … as compared with 11.0 months among the 262 patients who received placebo …

Serious adverse events (grade 3 or 4) “ … that were considered by the investigators to be related to the active drug or placebo occurred in 71 of 532 patients (13%) in the nivolumab group and 15 of 260 patients (6%) in the placebo group. The trial regimen was discontinued because of adverse events related to the active drug or placebo in 9% of the patients in the nivolumab group and 3% of those in the placebo group.”

The CheckMate 577 study was also referenced in an article published recently in the New York Times (NYT) that stated the study “offers hope to patients.” Dr. David Ilson, an esophageal cancer expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, was quoted as saying, “It is a game changer … We’ve waited a long time for this.”

You can read the NYT article here:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/health/esophageal-cancer-nivolumab.html

To access the full study: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032125?query=RES