Michael Postow, MD, on Number of Doses of Immunotherapy in Advanced Melanoma

Source: Med Page Today, May 2022

Advanced melanoma patients who show a favorable response after two doses of nivolumab plus ipilimumab may be spared the standard third and fourth doses of immunotherapy, a study suggested.

Standard combination therapy in metastatic melanoma is four doses of nivolumab-ipilimumab in induction and nivolumab maintenance therapy, although the need for four doses has never been established. A recent study tested whether patients who had an early favorable antitumor effect after two doses could stop this combination immunotherapy. With a median follow-up of 25 months, the estimated 18-month progression-free survival among the 41 patients included was 52% and overall survival was 80%.

In the following interview, Michael A. Postow, MD, chief of the Melanoma Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, described the highlights of the team’s study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

READ THE ORIGINAL FULL ARTICLE