Combined immunotherapy improves survival in metastatic melanoma

A combination of two immunotherapy agents acting on different steps in activation of the immune system considerably improves the time to disease progression in patients with previously untreated metastatic melanoma when compared with either drug alone, first study to investigate this dual approach has shown.

The international study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine,1 randomly assigned 945 patients with unresectable stage III or IV melanoma to treatment with either nivolumab alone, nivolumab plus ipilimumab, or ipilimumab alone.

Results showed that …