Immune checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma

Adam J Cooper; Matteo S Carlino; Richard F Kefford

doi:10.2217/mmt.15.17

Immune checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma

Melanoma Manag. 2015 Aug;2(3):267-284. doi: 10.2217/mmt.15.17. Epub 2015 Aug 10.

Authors

Adam J Cooper^{1

2

3

1

2

3}, Matteo S Carlino^{1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4}, Richard F Kefford^{1

2

3

4

5

1

2

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
² School of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ Melanoma Institute Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁴ Westmead Institute for Cancer Research, University of Sydney at the Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead, NSW, Australia.
⁵ Department of Clinical Medicine, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

The potential to harness the power of the immune system and effectively treat patients with metastatic melanoma is finally being realized with the advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors. These new therapies herald a new era in the treatment of melanoma with the potential to produce very durable responses and possible cure for a subset of patients, though bring with them challenges including novel toxicities and nonconventional response patterns. This article reviews the currently available immune checkpoint inhibitors, potential biomarkers to predict response and promising investigational approaches including combination therapies.

Keywords: anti-CTLA4; anti-PD-1; anti-PD-L1; checkpoint inhibitor; immunotherapy; ipilimumab; melanoma; nivolumab; pembrolizumab.

Publication types

Review