Nivolumab in Treating Patients With Persistent, Recurrent, or Metastatic Cervical Cancer

This phase II trial studies the side effects and how well nivolumab works in treating patients with cervical cancer that has grown, come back, or spread to other places in the body. Monoclonal antibodies, such as nivolumab, may block tumor growth in different ways by targeting certain cells.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To assess the antitumor activity (proportion of objective response by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors \[RECIST\] 1.1 criteria) of nivolumab with objective tumor response in patients with persistent, recurrent or metastatic carcinoma of the cervix. II. To determine the nature and degree of toxicity of nivolumab as assessed by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) in patients with persistent, recurrent or metastatic carcinoma of the cervix. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To estimate the duration of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. To systematically evaluate programmed cell death (PD)-1 and B7 homolog 1 (B7-H1) (i.e., PD-1 ligand) expression in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and cervical cancer cells and explore their correlations with objective response, PFS, and OS in nivolumab-treated patients with PD-1 and B7-H1 scoring results. II. To explore the composition of immune infiltrates in tumor specimens/biopsies from primary and/or metastatic/recurrent sites with selected markers including (but not limited) to cluster of differentiation (CD)4+, CD8+, forkhead box P3 (FoxP3), CD25, lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3), T cell immunoglobulin mucin-3 (TIM-3), and inducible T-cell co-stimulator (ICOS) and their correlations to objective response, PFS and OS in nivolumab-treated patients. III. To evaluate human papillomavirus (HPV) status and to explore the changes of pre- and post-immune therapy responses to HPV16/18/31/35/45 E7 antigens in patients peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) and serum using proliferative and interferon (IFN)-gamma enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) (cellular immunity) and serological (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay \[ELISA\]) assays. IV. To explore the levels of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) pre-treatment and at 8 and 12 weeks and their association with patient outcome. OUTLINE: Patients receive nivolumab intravenously (IV) over approximately 60 minutes every 2 weeks for a maximum of 46 doses over 92 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for 3 years.