# DART (SWOG 1609): nivolumab plus ipilimumab in rare tumours, non-pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms cohort

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-dart-nivolumab-ipilimumab-nec-patel-ccr-2020/  
OnCo record `paper-dart-nivolumab-ipilimumab-nec-patel-ccr-2020` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

In a basket trial of rare cancers, dual immunotherapy shrank tumours in about a quarter of patients with non-pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms, almost all of them high-grade carcinomas, giving an immunotherapy option for a disease with few treatments.

## Summary

Neuroendocrine cohort of the phase 2 DART basket trial: 32 patients with non-pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab.

Objective response was 25 percent overall and 44 percent in high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma, with no responses in low- or intermediate-grade tumours; median progression-free survival was 4 months and overall survival 11 months.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Journal: Clinical Cancer Research
- Year: 2020
- DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-3356
- Authors: Patel SP, Othus M, Chae YK, et al.
- Findings: Objective response 25 percent overall; 44 percent in high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma.; No responses in grade 1 to 2 neuroendocrine tumours.
- What it means: Nivolumab plus ipilimumab is a guideline-listed option for extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma after platinum chemotherapy, whereas well-differentiated tumours do not respond.
- Caveats: Very small cohort; responses were not always durable.; A subsequent expansion cohort reported lower response rates.

## Sources

- Clin Cancer Res 2020: https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-3356
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31969335/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/extrapulmonary-nec/)
- journals: [Clinical Cancer Research](https://onco.cc/journals/clinical-cancer-research/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/paper-dart-nivolumab-ipilimumab-nec-patel-ccr-2020.json