pairingsPairing
Caution: LAG-3 blockade outside active disease
LAG-3 blockers helped in measurable melanoma with one drug pairing, but failed as adjuvant therapy and with a different PD-1 partner.
RELATIVITY-098 (adjuvant nivolumab-relatlimab) and the fianlimab-cemiplimab first-line phase 3 (2026) were both negative. The LAG-3 benefit so far is confined to nivolumab-relatlimab in unresectable disease.
Rationale
LAG-3 is expressed on exhausted T cells inside tumours; without tumour, or with different antibody properties and comparators, the effect may vanish.
Evidence
Two negative phase 3 trials versus one positive.