VIDEO: Advanced melanoma on brink of immunotherapy ‘revolution’

Source: Skin and Allergy News, June 2014

CHICAGO – Advanced melanoma therapy – a field notorious for offering patients few drugs and little chance of survival – may be on the brink of an extraordinary transformation.

“There’s truly a revolution going in the immunotherapy of melanoma," explained Dr. Steven O’Day of the Beverly Hills (Calif.) Cancer Center.

In a video interview at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, Dr. O’Day reviews the rapid developments in melanoma treatment options and the shift from a “nuclear bomb" approach to a more-targeted “cruise missile" mindset. He also highlights the parallels between the exceptional advances made in childhood leukemia treatment and new melanoma treatments such as ipilimumab and PD-1 inhibitors, and he discusses the new drugs’ ability to overcome a phenomenon that often defeats chemotherapy: cancer cell resistance.