Dr. Wolchock on the Phase III CheckMate-067 Melanoma Findings

Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, chief, melanoma and immunotherapeutics service and Lloyd J. Old Chair for clinical investigation at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the findings of the Phase III CheckMate-067 trial.

The trial looked at nivolumab (Opdivo ) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) versus nivolumab monotherapy versus ipilimumab monotherapy in patients with previously untreated advanced melanoma.

There was a good balance between safety and efficacy in the combination cohort, says Wolchok. The combination cohort had the highest response rate and the longest progression-free survival. The therapy was delivered at 137 sites globally to 935 patients, one-third whom received the combination. Despite this large group, there were no therapy-related deaths, says Wolchok.

Of the 37% of patients who stopped treatment due to toxicities, 67.5% of those patients had an objective response, and half of those experienced that response after they stopped treatment. The trial’s successes can serve as a guideline for how to use this treatment if it should become available, says Wolchok.

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