Claire Friedman on Immunotherapy in Elderly Patients With Melanoma
Claire Friedman, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the promise of immunotherapy for elderly patients with melanoma.
Claire Friedman, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the promise of immunotherapy for elderly patients with melanoma.
A study was conducted at MSK that observed patients aged 80 or older who were treated with ipilimumab (Yervoy), pembrolizumab (Keytruda), nivolumab (Opdivo), or a combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab, between 2008 and 2015. The results, Friedman said, were very exciting, particularly for patients on ipilimumab, who had the best long-term survival data, with about 25% still alive today.
The study also revealed a plateau in the overall survival cure for elderly patients with melanoma, who traditionally had a poor prognosis.
