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Comment
. 2018 Aug 22;6(1):80.
doi: 10.1186/s40425-018-0397-8.

The age of enlightenment in melanoma immunotherapy

Mark R Albertini  1   2   3   4
Affiliations
Comment

The age of enlightenment in melanoma immunotherapy

Mark R Albertini. J Immunother Cancer. .

Abstract

An updated survival analysis by Callahan et al. published in the February 1, 2018 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology reported a 3-year overall survival (OS) rate of 63% for 94 patients with previously treated or untreated advanced melanoma who received ipilimumab and nivolumab as concurrent therapy in a phase 1 dose escalation study CA209-004 (n = 53) or in an expansion cohort with the dose and schedule of concurrent ipilimumab and nivolumab now approved for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma (n = 41). While this 3-year OS rate of 63% in patients with measurable, unresectable stage III or IV melanoma is an impressive accomplishment that compares very favorably with historical metastatic melanoma survival rates, findings from larger phase 3 studies are needed to determine whether combination immunotherapy significantly improves survival more than single agent immunotherapy with PD-1 blockade. This Commentary discusses the transition from the dark ages to the age of enlightenment in melanoma immunotherapy and provides a roadmap for a better tomorrow for patients with metastatic melanoma.

Keywords: Immune-checkpoint blockade; Immunotherapy; Metastatic melanoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Author’s information

MRA is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Director of the Melanoma Disease Oriented Team (DOT) at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC), and Chief of Oncology at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The author has research collaborations through the University of Wisconsin with Bristol Myers Squibb (Redwood City, CA and Princeton, NJ) and with Apeiron Biologics (Vienna, Austria). The author declares no competing interests related to this publication.

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Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Comment on

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