Promising mid-stage survival data with ipilimumab

Drug major Bristol-Myers Squibb and fellow USA-based Medarex have reported encouraging preliminary survival data for ipilimumab (10mg/kg monotherapy), an investigational oncology immunotherapy, in previously-treated patients with advanced metastatic melanoma.

Results of three Phase II trial and one Phase I/II study were presented at the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. They showed: one-year projected survival rate of 46.7% and median overall survival of 10.2 months in patients who had progressed while on or after receiving standard treatment; one-year projected survival rate of 53.4 and median overall survival of 14.6 months in patients who were previously treated, relapsed or failed to respond to experimental treatment or were unable to tolerate currently approved therapies; one-year projected survival rate of 59.1 in treatment-naive patients and people previously-treated with therapy other than ipilimumab, at the time of analysis, the median overall survival had not been reached; and two-year projected survival rate of 30 and median overall survival of 13.4 months in heavily pre-treated melanoma patients.