Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Opdivo (nivolumab), in combination with certain types of chemotherapy, for the initial treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer and esophageal adenocarcinoma. This is the first FDA-approved immunotherapy for the first-line treatment of gastric cancer.
There are approximately 28,000 new diagnoses of gastric cancer each year in the U.S. With currently available therapy, overall survival is generally poor; the rate of cure with resection is very low and the survival rate for all stages is 32%. The 5-year survival rate for advanced or metastatic gastric cancer is 5%.
