Talimogene laherparepvec, pembrolizumab combination safely treats advanced melanoma

Source: Healio.com, March 2016

NEW YORK — Patients with advanced unresectable melanoma can safely receive combination therapy with full doses of talimogene laherparepvec and pembrolizumab, according to study results presented at HemOnc Today Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies.

In previous studies, talimogene laherparepvec (Imlygic, Amgen) — a herpes simplex virus-1-based oncolytic immunotherapy — significantly improved durable response rate in patients with advanced melanoma. Also, pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) — an anti–PD-1 antibody — showed superiority over ipilimumab (Yervoy, Bristol Meyers Squibb) in patients with stage III or IV melanoma.

Both drugs appeared tolerable and demonstrated nonoverlapping adverse event profiles.