The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved the use of PD-1 agonist nivolumab with anti-CTLA-4 ipilimumab to treat melanoma patients in the UK through the NHS. 

The announcement follows the publication of updated results of the phase III CheckMate 067 trial at ASCO 2016, with a median progression free survival (PFS) of 11.5 months for the combination, compared to 6.9 months for nivolumab and 2.9 months for ipilimumab as single agents.

The combination has already met FDA approval in America for the treatment of melanoma. 

Nivolumab has previously been recommended as a single agent by NICE and The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) to treat melanoma, and is the subject of significant interest to treat many tumour types.

Ipilimumab is similarly in demand, in combination with other immunotherapies, alongside radiotherapy or as a single agent to treat metastatic melanoma.

Bristol Myers-Squibb, who produce both drugs, have also recently announced investigations into their efficacy in treating lung cancer.

Source: NICE