ESMO 2026 | IOV-COM-202: lifileucel and pembrolizumab in IO-naive advanced melanoma

A phase two trial that we presented yesterday and we presented cohort 1a which is patients with advanced melanoma and these patients were naive to systemic immunotherapy immune checkpoint inhibitors for melanoma and and they went ahead and as a first treatment for advanced melanoma had lift the loose or till therapy a type of cell therapy, plus pembrolizumab immunotherapy. and there were two major findings and the first was that there were really encouraging response rates so about 60 % of patients had response and 30% of them had complete responses meaning the tumors disappeared completely which was really encouraging and the second major finding was that by adding those two drugs together there wasn’t any additional safety concern no additional toxicity synergistic toxicity and which was both of which were great to see was a smallish phase two study so not sufficient evidence then that become a new standard of care but there’s already as a consequence of the encouraging data from this phase two study there’s a phase three study running now and that’s a randomized phase three study called till VANCE 301 and that will hopefully answer that question about efficacy and safety in a much larger population of patients.