This Clinical Trial Extended the Life of Patients With Advanced Melanoma

(HealthDay News) — A decade of patient follow-up finds a combo of two immunotherapy drugs can greatly extend survival for people with advanced melanomas. In 2011, a diagnosis of advanced, metastatic melanoma typically meant death within 6.5 months, noted researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. Black Americans are also more likely to be diagnosed with advanced-stage melanoma than white people. By 2024, use of the two-drug combo — nivolumab and ipilimumab — has extended that survival for six years and possibly more, said researchers led by Dr. Jedd Wolchok. He’s a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell, where he also directs the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center. “This was a practice-changing trial,” Wolchok said in a Weill Cornell news release. “The median survival for this population is now a little over six years, and people who are free from cancer progression at three years have a high likelihood of remaining alive and disease-free at the 10-year time point.” The findings were published Sept. 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trial was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb, which makes nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy). Both drugs are in a class of cancer meds called immune...