Dual Immunotherapy a Winner for Melanoma Brain Mets

Source: Med Scape, September 2018

Combined immunotherapy with two checkpoint inhibitors — nivolumab (Opdivo, Bristol-Myers Squibb) and ipilimumab (Yervoy, Bristol-Myers Squibb) — has shown “clinically meaningful" efficacy in patients with asymptomatic, untreated melanoma metastases to the brain, according to a report regarding new data from the CheckMate 204 open-label phase 2 study.

“Although current practice is to start with surgery, stereotactic radiotherapy, or both followed by immunotherapy or targeted agents, our results support the initiation of immunotherapy to achieve prompt control of both extracranial and brain metastases," write the authors.

Intracranial responses, which matched extracranial responses, were seen in more than half the patients and were detected at the first disease assessment, suggesting a rapid response. The reponses were also durable.

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