Michael Brown, MBBS, FRACP, FRCPA of Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, Australia discusses global immune checkpoint inhibitor studies. Prof Brown mentions that it has been known for decades that patients with tumors which have infiltrating lymphocytes have a better prognosis. The reason for this could be a low level control, which may mean that checkpoint inhibitors uncap a process which is already under way, a reinvigoration of the immune response. The most striking data is in melanoma with 20% of survivors after 10 years for anti-CTLA-4 therapy with ipilimumab, and 34% survivors after 5 years for anti-PD-1 therapy with nivolumab. Recorded at the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) and International Society of Ocular Oncology (ISOO) 2016 Annual Meeting on Supportive Care in Cancer held in Adelaide, Australia.
