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First author of the 2010 ipilimumab trial that proved immunotherapy could extend survival in melanoma.
F. Stephen Hodi is Director of the Melanoma Center and the Center for Immuno-Oncology at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. He is known as first author of the 2010 phase 3 ipilimumab trial that opened the checkpoint-inhibitor era in melanoma, and later for the long-term follow-up of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in CheckMate 067. His selected papers report ipilimumab in metastatic melanoma and the long-term results of nivolumab with or without ipilimumab in advanced melanoma. He now directs Dana-Farber's immuno-oncology centre and continues to work on CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade.
| Title | Journal | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Improved survival with ipilimumab in patients with metastatic melanoma | New England Journal of Medicine | 2010 |
| Long-term survival with nivolumab plus ipilimumab or nivolumab alone in advanced melanoma (CheckMate 067) | New England Journal of Medicine | 2025 |
| CheckMate 067 at ten years: half of melanoma patients treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab were alive a decade later | New England Journal of Medicine | 2025 |
| Topalian 2012: the first large trial of a PD-1 antibody shows durable responses across melanoma, lung and kidney cancer | New England Journal of Medicine | 2012 |
For patients with advanced melanoma, immunotherapy offers a realistic chance of long-term survival and probably cure, and the ten-year data show that patients who are alive and progression-free at three years rarely die of melanoma afterwards. Nivolumab plus ipilimumab gives the best long-term results but at a high price in serious side effects; nivolumab alone or nivolumab plus relatlimab are alternatives for patients at lower risk or with autoimmune concerns. The trial is also a caution about surrogate endpoints: the survival plateau took years to become visible.
This study is why PD-1 inhibitors were developed across cancers rather than in melanoma alone: unexpected activity in lung cancer, historically thought immune-resistant, changed drug development priorities industry-wide. It also introduced PD-L1 immunohistochemistry as a candidate biomarker and pneumonitis as a signature toxicity. Within five years PD-1 blockade was approved in more than ten cancers.
This paper launched the immunotherapy era. It was the first randomised evidence that taking a brake off the immune system could extend life in a solid cancer, and it introduced clinicians to immune-related adverse events and to responses that arrive late or after apparent progression. Ipilimumab alone has since been superseded by PD-1 antibodies and combinations, but every checkpoint programme traces back to this result.
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CheckMate 067, CheckMate 067 at ten years: nivolumab plus ipilimumab produces long-term survival in half of patients with advanced melanoma, CTLA-4.
Shares CheckMate 067, CTLA-4, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab.
Shares Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Topalian 2012: the first large trial of a PD-1 antibody shows durable responses across melanoma, lung and kidney cancer, Nivolumab, PD-1.
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CheckMate 067 at ten years: nivolumab plus ipilimumab produces long-term survival in half of patients with advanced melanoma, CTLA-4, Ipilimumab.
Shares CheckMate 067, CheckMate 067 at ten years: nivolumab plus ipilimumab produces long-term survival in half of patients with advanced melanoma, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab.
Shares CTLA-4, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab, PD-1.
Shares Topalian 2012: the first large trial of a PD-1 antibody shows durable responses across melanoma, lung and kidney cancer, Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center, PD-1, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab.