AIST DETI Clinic

Results from a large study are expected to help determine the best treatment approach for some people with an advanced form of melanoma. The NCI-sponsored clinical trial, called DREAMseq, included people with metastatic melanoma whose tumors had a specific mutation in the BRAF gene. The study tested initially giving patients a combination of the immunotherapy drugs ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) or a combination of the targeted therapies dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist). More patients treated first with immunotherapy drugs were alive at 2 years compared to patients treated first with the targeted therapy combination (72% versus 52%). The difference was substantial enough to stop the trial early by its data safety and monitoring board. Credit: Sriram Subramaniam, NCI