Nearly twice as many patients with metastatic melanoma who received a combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) and dacarbazine were alive after four years compared with patients who received dacarbazine alone, suggesting that ipilimumab has long-term survival benefits and that the combination could serve as an effective treatment regimen.
The results of the long-term follow-up were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2012 Congress in Vienna, Austria.
Ipilimumab, which is administered intravenously, is a monoclonal antibody that blocks the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen (CTLA-4) molecule. CTLA-4 is implicated in suppressing antitumor immune responses. Dacarbazine is a triazene derivative with antineoplastic activity. Both drugs are approved to treat metastatic melanoma. Read More...