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Led NICHE-2, in which almost every mismatch-repair-deficient colon cancer responded to short pre-surgery immunotherapy.
Myriam Chalabi is a medical oncologist and group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI-AvL). Her specialisms are gastrointestinal oncology, neoadjuvant immunotherapy and mismatch-repair-deficient cancers. Her NICHE and NICHE-2 trials showed that a brief course of neoadjuvant nivolumab plus ipilimumab produces pathological responses in nearly all mismatch-repair-deficient colon cancers, reshaping the treatment paradigm. Her New England Journal of Medicine paper on NICHE-2 reported neoadjuvant immunotherapy in locally advanced mismatch repair-deficient colon cancer. Her publications are listed on PubMed.
| Title | Journal | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Neoadjuvant immunotherapy in locally advanced mismatch repair-deficient colon cancer (NICHE-2) | NEJM | 2024 |
| NICHE-2: a single dose of ipilimumab and two of nivolumab before surgery clears dMMR colon cancer in most patients | New England Journal of Medicine | 2024 |
For colon cancer that is mismatch-repair deficient (about 10-15% of colon cancers, more in older patients), a single short course of immunotherapy before surgery is now a reasonable standard and is far more effective than chemotherapy, which has little effect in this subtype. It requires testing every colon cancer for mismatch repair at diagnosis, before surgery. Whether some patients can safely skip surgery, as in dMMR rectal cancer, is the next question.
Combination checkpoint blockade became a first-line standard for mismatch repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer in 2025; the later all-lines comparison against nivolumab alone showed the CTLA-4 antibody adds to the PD-1 antibody, the first phase 3 to prove that in this disease.
Shares NICHE-2, Microsatellite instability (MSI-H) / mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR), Ipilimumab, Colorectal cancer roadmap: from the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and the first screening trials to total mesorectal excision, oxaliplatin, RAS testing, immunotherapy for mismatch repair-deficient disease, ctDNA-guided treatment and organ preservation.
Shares Use pre-surgery immunotherapy windows as the field's biomarker engine, Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI-AvL), Ipilimumab, Nivolumab.
Shares NICHE-2: a month of nivolumab and ipilimumab before surgery clears mismatch-repair-deficient colon cancer in most patients, Microsatellite instability (MSI-H) / mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR), Colorectal cancer roadmap: from the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and the first screening trials to total mesorectal excision, oxaliplatin, RAS testing, immunotherapy for mismatch repair-deficient disease, ctDNA-guided treatment and organ preservation, Colorectal cancer.
Shares Nivolumab plus ipilimumab in microsatellite-instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer (CheckMate 8HW), Microsatellite instability (MSI-H) / mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR), Ipilimumab, Colorectal cancer roadmap: from the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and the first screening trials to total mesorectal excision, oxaliplatin, RAS testing, immunotherapy for mismatch repair-deficient disease, ctDNA-guided treatment and organ preservation.
Shares Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI-AvL), Ipilimumab, Nivolumab.
Shares Nivolumab plus ipilimumab in microsatellite-instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer (CheckMate 8HW), Ipilimumab, Colorectal cancer roadmap: from the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and the first screening trials to total mesorectal excision, oxaliplatin, RAS testing, immunotherapy for mismatch repair-deficient disease, ctDNA-guided treatment and organ preservation, Nivolumab.
Shares A funded programme of organ-preservation trials to avoid radical surgery, NICHE-2, Colorectal cancer.
Shares Ipilimumab, Nivolumab, Colorectal cancer.