{"entity":{"id":"sharon-belvin","kind":"person","name":"Sharon Belvin","aka":[],"tldr":"Diagnosed with metastatic melanoma at 22, she received the anti-CTLA-4 antibody ipilimumab in an early trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering and has been cancer-free since. Her meeting with James Allison in 2006 is part of immunotherapy's history.","summary":"Sharon Belvin was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma in 2004, at 22, shortly before her wedding, and the disease progressed through chemotherapy and interleukin-2. In 2005 she was enrolled by Jedd Wolchok at Memorial Sloan Kettering in a trial of ipilimumab, the anti-CTLA-4 antibody based on James Allison's work; within months her tumours had gone and they have not returned. In 2006 Wolchok introduced her to Allison, a meeting Allison has described as the point at which he understood that his laboratory work had become a treatment. Ipilimumab was approved by the FDA in March 2011, the first drug to extend survival in metastatic melanoma in a randomised trial, and the first of the checkpoint inhibitors. She appears in the 2019 documentary Jim Allison: Breakthrough and speaks for the early trial participants who took an unproven approach when nothing else worked.","asOf":"2026-09-09","links":[{"label":"James P. Allison (Wikipedia)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_P._Allison"},{"label":"Memorial Sloan Kettering","url":"https://www.mskcc.org/"}],"tags":["hero","patient"],"related":[],"cancers":["melanoma"],"sections":["immunotherapy"],"technologies":["checkpoint-inhibitor"],"targets":["ctla4"],"drugs":["ipilimumab","aldesleukin"],"companies":[],"institutions":["mskcc"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":["james-allison"],"bottlenecks":["b-trial-enrolment","b-immunotherapy-response"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Early complete responder to ipilimumab whose recovery Jim Allison called the moment he knew","specialisms":["Melanoma","Checkpoint immunotherapy","Clinical trial participation"],"profiles":[{"label":"James P. Allison (Wikipedia)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_P._Allison"},{"label":"Memorial Sloan Kettering","url":"https://www.mskcc.org/"}],"papers":[]},"route":"/people/sharon-belvin/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"}],"section":[{"id":"immunotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Immunotherapy","route":"/fronts/immunotherapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"checkpoint-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"Immune checkpoint inhibitors","route":"/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/"}],"target":[{"id":"ctla4","kind":"target","name":"CTLA-4","route":"/targets/ctla4/"}],"drug":[{"id":"aldesleukin","kind":"drug","name":"Aldesleukin (high-dose IL-2)","route":"/drugs/aldesleukin/"},{"id":"ipilimumab","kind":"drug","name":"Ipilimumab","route":"/drugs/ipilimumab/"}],"institution":[{"id":"mskcc","kind":"institution","name":"Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/mskcc/"}],"person":[{"id":"james-allison","kind":"person","name":"James P. Allison","route":"/people/james-allison/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-immunotherapy-response","kind":"bottleneck","name":"No one can predict who responds to immunotherapy","route":"/bottlenecks/b-immunotherapy-response/"},{"id":"b-trial-enrolment","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Trials enrol too few, too slowly","route":"/bottlenecks/b-trial-enrolment/"}]}}