Novel immunotherapy combo shows promise in melanoma
Source: Medical Xpress, November 2024
Pre-surgery treatment with the novel drug vidutolimod and the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab led to tumor control in 55% of patients with stage 3 cutaneous melanoma, according to the results of a single-arm phase 2 clinical trial led by the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
The findings, published in Cancer Cell, support the development of vidutolimod for treating cutaneous melanoma and provide important insights that could advance research on this drug for use in other cancers.
“This is the first and only clinical trial so far to test the novel combination of nivolumab and the experimental drug vidutolimod in the neoadjuvant setting," said lead author Diwakar Davar, M.D., associate professor at the Pitt School of Medicine and UPMC Hillman. “It’s exciting that we saw a response rate of 55%, which is on par with currently approved immunotherapy combinations."