ESMO Congress 2026 · Rapid oral: Gastrointestinal tumours, lower digestivePresented Sat, Oct 24, 15:42 — part of the congress special, live as presented.
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CheckMate 8HW

Final overall survival results from CheckMate 8HW: Nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus nivolumab or chemotherapy in MSI-H/dMMR metastatic colorectal cancer

Patient / Population Intervention / Exposure Comparison Outcome

In patients with MSI-H/dMMR metastatic colorectal cancer, nivolumab plus ipilimumab significantly improved overall survival compared with nivolumab across all treatment lines and chemotherapy in first line.

N
—patients
Design
Phase 3 trial randomising patients with centrally confirmed MSI-H/dMMR metastatic colorectal cancer 2:2:1 to nivolumab plus ipilimumab, nivolumab, or chemotherapy with or without targeted therapy across multiple lines of therapy (NCT04008030).
Endpoint
Overall survival at the prespecified final analysis, for nivolumab plus ipilimumab vs nivolumab across all treatment lines, vs chemotherapy in first line, and vs nivolumab in first line. Updated PFS, objective response rate, duration of response and safety were also assessed.
ResultAcross all treatment lines, median OS was not reached with nivolumab plus ipilimumab (n = 296) or with nivolumab (n = 286): HR 0.61 (95% CI 0.46-0.82; P = 0.0009). In first line, median OS was not reached with nivolumab plus ipilimumab (n = 171) vs 50.1 months (95% CI 31.7-NE) with chemotherapy (n = 84): HR 0.37 (95% CI 0.24-0.57; P < 0.0001). In first line vs nivolumab (n = 170), median OS was not reached in either arm: HR 0.66 (95% CI 0.44-0.99; P = 0.0432), which was not statistically significant against a significance boundary of P = 0.0058. Median PFS across all lines was not reached (71.7-NE) vs 39.3 months (23.0-58.7) with nivolumab, HR 0.60 (95% CI 0.47-0.77). In first line it was not reached (64.3-NE) vs 5.9 months (4.4-7.8) with chemotherapy, HR 0.21 (95% CI 0.14-0.32), and not reached (64.3-NE) vs 60.8 months (32.8-NE) with nivolumab, HR 0.68 (95% CI 0.48-0.96). ORR (descriptive) was 72% vs 58% across all lines, 74% vs 27% vs chemotherapy in first line, and 74% vs 61% vs nivolumab in first line. Median duration of response was 8.2 months (5.9-17.6) with chemotherapy and was not reached in the immunotherapy arms. There were no new safety signals and no additional treatment-related deaths. Median follow-up was 68.1 months (range 37.6-81.4).
Lonardi S, Lenz H, Elez E, et al. Annals of Oncology. 2026. 10.1016/j.annonc.2026.09.009
Discussion & critique

After a median follow-up of more than 5 years, this final analysis shows a statistically significant overall survival benefit for nivolumab plus ipilimumab over nivolumab across all treatment lines and over chemotherapy in first line. In first line against nivolumab alone, the overall survival hazard ratio favoured the combination, but it did not cross the significance boundary. That leaves the added value of ipilimumab in first line supported by PFS rather than by a confirmed survival gain. Median overall survival was not reached in most arms, the PFS, response and duration figures are descriptive, and the abstract gives no safety rates, does not report blinding, and does not describe crossover or subsequent therapy in the chemotherapy arm.

ESMO Congress 2026 · Rapid oral: Gastrointestinal tumours, lower digestivePresented Sat, Oct 24, 15:42 — part of the congress special, live as presented.
All Hot Line trials →