Carellizumab is a PD1 immune checkpoint inhibitor independently developed by hengrui pharmaceuticals. As a domestic immunotherapy drug, carrelizumab was listed earlier, and is the third domestic PD-1 anti-cancer drug after triprimumab and sindilimab, which has been widely used in clinical practice in recent years. With the release of a large number of clinical trial data, the scope of indications for carelliltizumab in clinical practice has gradually increased. Today we take stock of the 8 approved indications of carriedivizumab, covering 5 major types of malignant tumors.
1. Lymphoma
Carrillizumab was approved for marketing by the State Food and Drug Administration on December 27, 2018 for the treatment of relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma that has undergone at least second-line systemic chemotherapy, and it is the second domestic PD-1 monoclonal antibody drug approved for this indication after xindilizumab.
2. Liver cancer
In March 2020, carellizumab was approved in China for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who had received sorafenib treatment and/or chemotherapy with the oxaliplatin system, the first PD-1 inhibitor approved for liver cancer indications in China. That is, second-line and above treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
3. Non-scaly non-small cell lung cancer
On 19 June 2020, carririzumab combined with pemetrexed and carboplatin was used for the first-line treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation negative and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), non-surgically resectable locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
4. Esophageal cancer
On 19 June 2020, carellizumab was approved for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or intolerable disease progression or intolerable after previous first-line chemotherapy" and is intended for the entire population (not limited by PD-L1 expression). That is, second-line and above treatment of esophageal cancer.
On 10 December 2021, carellizumab was approved in combination with paclitaxel and cisplatin for first-line treatment of patients with unresectable locally advanced/recurrent or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
5. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma
In April 2021, carellizumab was successfully approved as an indication for "treatment of patients with disease progression or intolerable advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma after previous treatment of second-line and above chemotherapy".
On June 10, 2021, the State Food and Drug Administration issued an approval document, and carrelizumab was approved for new indications, combined with cisplatin and gemcitabine first-line treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
6. Lung squamous cell carcinoma
On December 10, 2021, carellizulizumab was approved as a first-line treatment indication for lung squamous cell carcinoma. Specifically, the combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin is used in the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer.
In terms of safety, the overall safety of patients treated with carellizumab monotherapy is good, adverse reactions are tolerated, and other common adverse events are comparable to other similar products in addition to reactive cutaneous capillary hyperplasia. Reactive cutaneous capillary hyperplasia, on the other hand, is mild and resolves spontaneously after about half a year.
It is worth mentioning that the approved indications do not mean that they are included in the scope of medical insurance reimbursement, because the first-line treatment of advanced esophageal cancer and the first-line treatment indications of advanced lung squamous cell carcinomab are approved too late, and these two indications are still not reimbursable in the new medical insurance directory in January 2022. Although nasopharyngeal carcinoma is approved as an indication, medical insurance cannot be reimbursed.