Significant Survival Advantage Combining Ipilimumab With an Immune Booster in Metastatic Melanoma

Patients with metastatic melanoma who were treated with ipilimumab, an immune checkpoint blocker, survived 50% longer—a median 17.5 months vs. 12.7 months–if they simultaneously received an immune stimulant, according to a study led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists.

Journal of the American Medical Association.

Patients in the clinical trial who got the combined therapies also had fewer serious adverse side effects than those who received only ipilimumab, the researchers report in the

The group treated with both ipilimumab and the immune stimulant, called sargramostim, had a one-year survival rate of 68.9 percent vs. 52.9 percent in the ipilimumab-only group. In both groups, however, the median progression-free survival (the length of time before the cancer began to grow) was similar — 3.1 months.

Link to the press release: http://bit.ly/1E5pwoP

Source: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute