New Drug Approved to Treat Melanoma

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a novel type of cancer vaccine called Yervoy, which works by unleashing the body’s own immune system to fight a tumor. In a randomized control trial, patients with metastatic melanoma treated with Yervoy lived a median of about 10 months, compared with 6.4 months for patients in a control group who received a treatment believed to have had little effect. After two years, more than 20 percent of those who got Yervoy, also known as ipilimumab, were alive, compared with 13.7 percent for the control group.

Yervoy is given every three weeks by infusion, and four doses is the typical treatment. Unlike other cancer drugs, such as Provenge, which work by training a patient’s immune system to attack the cancer, Yervoy works by disabling a brake on the immune system. And, because it is not specific for any type of tumor, it might conceivably be effective for many types, although that has not been proved in clinical trials. The drawback is that loosening the restraints on the immune system can lead to dangerous side effects, such as colitis, diarrhea, hepatitis, endocrine dysfunction, rashes and eye problems. In the clinical trial of Yervoy, which involved 676 patients, 540 of whom received Yervoy, seven people died of immune-related side effects.