The biggest advance that the melanoma space has seen in recent years is the advent of combination therapies, according to Douglas B. Johnson, MD, clinical director of the Melanoma Research Program and assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 

Response rates have increased thanks to the combination of immunotherapy agents, as well as combining BRAF and MEK inhibitors. 

Now, researchers are looking ahead, with clinical trials assessing PD-1 inhibitors with novel immune mechanisms or targeted agents, as well as the pairings of oncolytic viruses with checkpoint inhibitors. Johnson said that hopefully these trials will lead to improved clinical benefit for patients with the disease.

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Combination therapy has been the biggest recent advance in the melanoma space, but there is still more work to be done, according to Douglas B. Johnson, MD.

Douglas B. Johnson, MD

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Melanoma Advances: Where We Are and Where We're Going