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.

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.