From ecancer reporter Jo Armstrong

Presentation: Ipilimumab improves survival in previously treated, advanced melanoma patients with poor prognostic factors: subgroup analyses from a phase III trial - C. Lebbé

Ipilimumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody that blocks cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 to potentiate an antitumor T-cell response. In a phase III, randomised controlled trial (MDX010-20), ipilimumab has been shown to improve overall survival (OS) in patients with previously treated, advanced melanoma.¹ The results of a subgroup analysis of OS for patients in this trial with poor prognostic factors were presented at ESMO 2010. Across treatment groups, more than 70% of patients had M1c disease and more than 36% had elevated LDH levels at baseline. In these subgroups, ipilimumab showed a statistically significant improvement in OS compared with gp100 alone. A total of 77 patients with a history of brain metastases received treatment (42 in the combination group, 15 in the ipilimumab-alone group, and 20 in the gp100-alone group). Ongoing analyses will include OS for the subgroup of patients with a history of brain metastases. This subgroup analysis has shown that ipilimumab can improve OS in previously treated, advanced melanoma patients with both good and poor prognostic factors.

1. O'Day et al. ASCO 2010, Abstr 02.