Dr. Sullivan on Immunotherapy Approaches in Melanoma

Source: OncLive, May 2019

Ryan J. Sullivan, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, assistant professor of hematology/oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses treatment approaches with immunotherapy for patients with melanoma.

Patients with BRAF-mutant or BRAF wild-type melanoma who are eligible for immunotherapy can receive single-agent PD-1 inhibition or combination immunotherapy comprised of a PD-1 inhibitor and a CTLA-4 inhibitor. Combination immunotherapy induces high response rates and better progression-free survival relative to single-agent therapy. However, it is unknown whether combination strategies confer a benefit in overall survival, says Sullivan.