ESMO 2024: More than half of advanced melanoma patients treated with combination immunotherapy survive the disease for at least 10 years
Source: ICR, September 2024
Over half (52 per cent) of people diagnosed with advanced melanoma are now surviving the disease for ten years or more when they receive a combination immunotherapy treatment, according to a study led by researchers at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
Just 15 years ago, only 1 in 20 patients with advanced melanoma would survive for five years, with many living for just six to nine months. The results from the Checkmate 067 trial, presented today (Sunday 15 September) at the 2024 ESMO Annual Meeting in Barcelona, Spain, and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine, includes the longest follow up of any phase III trial of Anti-PD-1 agents for the treatment of cancer.
Anti-PD-1 agents are a type of targeted immunotherapy called an immune checkpoint inhibitor. These drugs work by helping the immune system find and destroy cancer cells as they spread. Ipilimumab and nivolumab have both helped prolong lives and the study showed that, in combination, the results were even better.