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Nivolumab Case Study

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Opdivo (nivolumab)

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, having been diagnosed more than 224,000 times and causing more than 159,000 deaths in 2014, the FDA claims. NSCLC is the most common type, affecting seven of eight people with lung cancer.
A new drug has come out for treatment of metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Opdivo (nivolumab) the company that came out with it is Bristol-Myers Squibb. The approval came March 2015 for public use and became available on the market for consumer purchase. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of Opdivo (nivolumab) has given the drug and expanded base of usage to include advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the agency said in a news release. …show more content…

The first thing we will want to review is the mechanism of action: Nivolumab is an inhibitory ligand-blocking antibody against the programmed death receptor. In contrast to traditional chemotherapies and targeted anti-cancer therapies, which exert their effects by direct cytotoxic or tumor growth inhibition, nivolumab acts by blocking a negative regulator of T-cell activation and response thus allowing the immune system to attack the tumor.[5][6] This is an example of immune checkpoint blockade. The indications of nivolumab is indicated for the treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy . There are a few cautions that need to be addressed immune-mediated pneumonitis, melanoma, immune mediated colitis, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, immune-mediated nephritis and renal dysfunction just to name a few. Immune-mediated colitis reported; withhold for moderate or severe and permanently discontinue for life-threatening colitis. Immune-mediated hepatitis observed in clinical trials; monitor for changes in liver function; withhold for moderate and permanently discontinue for severe or life-threatening transaminase or total bilirubin elevation. Immune-mediated nephritis and renal dysfunction may occur; monitor for changes in renal function; withhold for moderate and permanently discontinue for severe or life-threatening serum creatinine elevation. Immune-mediated hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism reported; monitor for changes in thyroid function and initiate thyroid hormone replacement as needed. Other clinically significant immune-mediated adverse reactions (eg, rash, encephalitis) can occur after therapy discontinuation. Severe infusion reactions reported (rare, <1%); discontinue if severe or life threatening, interrupt or slow infusion rate if mild or moderate reaction. It can

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