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Head to head, the PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab held melanoma back longer, prolonged life and caused fewer severe side effects than ipilimumab, the CTLA-4 antibody that had been the first immunotherapy to extend survival.
KEYNOTE-006 randomised 834 patients with advanced melanoma, most untreated with immunotherapy, to pembrolizumab every two weeks, pembrolizumab every three weeks, or ipilimumab. Both pembrolizumab schedules improved progression-free and overall survival and roughly tripled the response rate compared with ipilimumab, with fewer grade 3 to 5 treatment-related adverse events. The trial made PD-1 blockade the first-line immunotherapy standard in melanoma and showed the three-weekly schedule was as effective as the two-weekly one.
This trial settled which checkpoint to block first in melanoma and set the pattern for PD-1 antibodies displacing ipilimumab across cancers. Long-term follow-up later showed that many responders remained free of progression years after stopping treatment.
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab.
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab.
Shares CTLA-4, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab, PD-1.
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, Ipilimumab, PD-1.
Shares Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Merck & Co. (MSD), Melanoma, Pembrolizumab.
Shares Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab, Melanoma, Pembrolizumab.
Shares CTLA-4, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab, PD-1.
Shares Objective response rate (ORR), Progression-free survival (PFS), Overall survival (OS), Merck & Co. (MSD).