Dr. Weber on Risk and Benefits With Immunotherapy Combos in Melanoma

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, deputy director and co-director of the Melanoma Program Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the risks and benefits of combination immunotherapy as treatment for patients with melanoma.

The combination therapy of the CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy) and the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) is associated with a high response rate and will likely have a plateau of survival that will be above 40% at 5 years, Weber explains. This would be a major improvement of what the field had for patients 10 years ago. However, it is unclear on whether the 2-drug regimen will be a significant improvement over single-agent pembrolizumab (Keytruda) or nivolumab.

However, for patients who are BRAF-negative, they are more likely to have deeper and longer responses if treated with the combination of immunotherapy agents, he adds.