# Adjuvant nivolumab and relatlimab in stage III/IV melanoma: the randomized phase 3 RELATIVITY-098 trial

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-relativity-098-nat-med-2025/  
OnCo record `paper-relativity-098-nat-med-2025` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Published report from the RELATIVITY-098 trial registered as NCT05002569, in Nature Medicine (2025), chosen as the most cited paper whose own text cites the registry id.

## Summary

Based on RELATIVITY-047, nivolumab plus relatlimab is approved for advanced melanoma. Here, to address a current unmet need for more efficacious adjuvant regimens for completely resected melanoma, the phase 3, double-blind RELATIVITY-098 trial compared adjuvant nivolumab plus relatlimab to nivolumab after complete resection of stage III/IV melanoma. Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive nivolumab 480 mg plus relatlimab 160 mg (n = 547) or nivolumab 480 mg (n = 546) intravenously every 4 weeks for ≤1 year; safety populations totaled 543 and 545 patients, respectively. The primary endpoint was recurrence-free survival (RFS), and the key secondary was overall survival; translational endpoints were exploratory. There was no difference in RFS for nivolumab plus relatlimab versus nivolumab (hazard ratio = 1.01; 95% confidence interval: 0.83-1.22; P = 0.928); therefore, overall survival was not tested. Translational data across trials showed lower circulating LAG-3 + T cells in the adjuvant setting (RELATIVITY-098) versus advanced melanoma (RELATIVITY-047), where LAG-3 + T cells were enriched in tumor versus blood. The absence of macroscopic tumor and reduced peripheral LAG-3 + T cells may explain the lack of added benefit of nivolumab plus relatlimab over nivolumab in resected versus metastatic melanoma. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05002569.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 41109920 (DOI 10.1038/s41591-025-04032-8). Its abstract cites the registry id NCT05002569, which is how it was matched to this trial; no figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: Nature Medicine
- Year: 2025
- DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-04032-8
- Authors: Long GV, Garnett-Benson C, Dolfi S, et al.
- What it means: This is the paper Europe PMC returns for registry id NCT05002569 with the most citations, so it is the natural first reading for anyone following the RELATIVITY-098 trial. Read the abstract above alongside the trial page and the registry entry; the record was linked automatically and its figures have not been checked by hand.
- Caveats: Matched to the trial by the registry id cited in the Europe PMC record; the summary reproduces the record's abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.

## Sources

- Nat Med 2025: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-04032-8
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41109920/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/41109920
- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05002569: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05002569

## Connected records

- trials: [RELATIVITY-098](https://onco.cc/trials/relativity-098/)
- journals: [Nature Medicine](https://onco.cc/journals/nature-medicine/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/paper-relativity-098-nat-med-2025.json