Immune Boost May Lower Risk for Melanoma Recurrence

Source: Clinical Oncology News. November 2015

Results from two small clinical trials have shown that intradermal injection of the immune system–boosting agent CpG-B after surgery can reduce the recurrence risk for stage I/II melanoma. The study was presented at the 2015 International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference (abstract A050).

“Our results imply that local conditioning of the melanoma excision site by simple intradermal administration of an immune-stimulatory compound like CpG-B can lead to boosting of a systemic antimelanoma immune response that affords protection against recurrences in the long term, with minimal transient side effects,” said lead author Tanja D. de Gruijl, PhD, the head of the immunotherapy lab at the VU University Medical Center’s Cancer Center, in Amsterdam. “We plan to conduct a large, randomized Phase III clinical trial of intradermal CpG-B versus saline to confirm our findings.”