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The trial with the longest immunotherapy follow-up: about half of patients on the combination are alive at 10 years.
CheckMate 067, trial NCT01844505 sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb and reported in 2015 with ten-year results in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the trial with the longest immunotherapy follow-up: about half of patients on nivolumab plus ipilimumab for untreated advanced melanoma are alive at ten years when melanoma-specific survival is counted. It randomised 945 patients to the combination, nivolumab alone or ipilimumab alone, met its co-primary progression-free survival endpoint, and established that immunotherapy can produce durable cures. Who needs the ipilimumab component and its toxicity remains the open question.
Numbers are from the trial as recorded here; see the source links in the table below. This is orientation, not medical advice: ask your team how closely the trial population matches you.
945 enrolled.
Step lines join published landmark estimates; the true curve between them is not shown.
| Endpoint | Arm | n | Value | HR (95% CI) | p | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall survival at 10 years | Nivolumab + ipilimumab | 314 | 43% | - | - | link |
| Nivolumab | 316 | 37% | ||||
| Ipilimumab | 315 | 19% | ||||
| Median overall survival | Nivolumab + ipilimumab | - | 71.9 months | - | - | link |
| Nivolumab | - | 36.9 months | ||||
| Ipilimumab | - | 19.9 months | ||||
| Melanoma-specific survival at 10 years | Nivolumab + ipilimumab | - | 52% | - | - | link |
| Nivolumab | - | 44% | ||||
| Ipilimumab | - | 23% | ||||
| Progression-free survival (co-primary)primary | Nivolumab + ipilimumab | - | 11.5 months | 0.42 | - | link |
| Nivolumab | - | 6.9 months | ||||
| Ipilimumab | - | 2.9 months |
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.
Patients with newly diagnosed advanced melanoma have a dual-checkpoint option that improves on nivolumab alone with only a modest increase in serious side effects, making it attractive for those unable to tolerate or unwilling to risk the toxicity of ipilimumab. It did not prove superior survival, and it has not been compared with nivolumab plus ipilimumab, which remains preferred for patients with brain metastases or other high-risk features. LAG-3 is now an established target under study in many other cancers.
One of the most cited trial reports Europe PMC returns for Nivolumab in Melanoma, so it is a natural first reading for anyone weighing the idea it is linked from. The record was linked automatically by title and abstract; read the abstract above and the paper itself before relying on any figure.
Every checkpoint inhibitor, from ipilimumab to pembrolizumab, rests on this idea: the immune system can already recognise cancer and just needs its brakes released. It changed the goal of immunotherapy from vaccinating against tumours to unleashing existing T cells.
Shares F. Stephen Hodi, Jedd D. Wolchok, Treat the draining lymph node before removing it, CheckMate 067 at ten years: nivolumab plus ipilimumab produces long-term survival in half of patients with advanced melanoma.
Shares RELATIVITY-047, Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione G. Pascale, RELATIVITY-047: relatlimab plus nivolumab, the first LAG-3 checkpoint combination, in untreated advanced melanoma, CheckMate 067 at ten years: nivolumab plus ipilimumab produces long-term survival in half of patients with advanced melanoma.
Shares James Larkin, Paolo A. Ascierto, Treat the draining lymph node before removing it, Ipilimumab.
Shares RELATIVITY-047, RELATIVITY-047: relatlimab plus nivolumab, the first LAG-3 checkpoint combination, in untreated advanced melanoma, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Ipilimumab.
Shares Michael A. Postow, CheckMate 067 at ten years: nivolumab plus ipilimumab produces long-term survival in half of patients with advanced melanoma, Ipilimumab, Nivolumab.
Shares James Larkin, Paolo A. Ascierto, BRAF V600-mutant melanoma, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV).
Shares Landmark and milestone survival (5-year survival, median follow-up), Kaplan-Meier curve, censoring and proportional hazards, Hazard ratio (HR), Overall survival (OS).
Shares RELATIVITY-047, Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione G. Pascale, RELATIVITY-047: relatlimab plus nivolumab, the first LAG-3 checkpoint combination, in untreated advanced melanoma, CheckMate 067 at ten years: nivolumab plus ipilimumab produces long-term survival in half of patients with advanced melanoma.