CheckMate 577

CheckMate 577, trial NCT02743494 sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb and reported in 2021, showed that a year of adjuvant nivolumab doubled the time before cancer returned in patients with oesophageal or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer whose tumour had not fully responded to neoadjuvant chemoradiation and surgery, though the survival gain did not reach significance. It randomised 794 patients with residual disease to nivolumab or placebo and met its primary disease-free survival endpoint, the basis of the 2021 FDA approval, while the final overall survival analysis at ASCO 2025 favoured nivolumab without statistical significance. It remains standard in NCCN and ESMO guidance, and whether a disease-free benefit without a survival benefit should be enough is the open question.