This study will test whether giving nivolumab in combination with pemetrexed and either cisplatin or carboplatin before surgery is a safe and effective approach to treating resectable mesothelioma without delaying surgery.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age ≥ 18 years
• Karnofsky performance status > 70%
• Pathologic diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
• Potentially resectable by pleurectomy/decortication, as assessed by thoracic surgeon
• Negative serum pregnancy test in women of childbearing potential
• Female patients of childbearing potential must agree to use a highly effective form of contraception for the duration of the study and for at least 5 months after the last administration of nivolumab and at least 6 months after last administration of pemetrexed, whichever is longer
• Male patients with female partners of childbearing potential must agree to use a highly effective form of contraception for the duration of the study and for at least 7 months after the last administration of nivolumab and at least 3 months after the last administration of pemetrexed, whichever is longer
• Adequate archival or fresh tissue for correlative analysis. Archival tissue will be deemed acceptable as long as their was no interval therapy prior to cycle 1 day 1 of protocol therapy. If sufficient archival or fresh tissue is not available, then a repeat biopsy at baseline prior to starting study treatment will be required as long as medically safe and feasible
• Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1000/mcL
• Total bilirubin ≤ 1.5 mg/dl
• AST and ALT ≤ 3.0 x upper limit of normal
• Creatinine ≤ 1.5 x upper limit of normal
• Negative HIV serology blood test

Exclusion Criteria:

• Prior treatment with chemotherapy or immunotherapy for mesothelioma
• Autoimmune disease requiring systemic immune modulating treatment during the past two years
• Pregnant or lactating women
• Known active hepatitis B or hepatitis C
• Current use of systemic prednisone at dose ≥ 10 mg daily (or the equivalent dose with another corticosteroid)
• Serious concurrent medical illness or another active cancer requiring treatment
• Active pneumonitis

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center supports the international committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) and the ethical obligation of responsible sharing of data from clinical trials. The protocol summary, a statistical summary, and informed consent form will be made available on clinicaltrials.gov when required as a condition of Federal awards, other agreements supporting the research and/or as otherwise required. Requests for deidentified individual participant data can be made beginning 12 months after publication and for up to 36 months post publication. Deidentified individual participant data reported in the manuscript will be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement and may only be used for approved proposals. Requests may be made to: crdatashare@mskcc.org.