The Excitement Surrounding Immunotherapies for Melanoma

Clinical Pearls

Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the excitement surrounding immunotherapies for the treatment of patients with melanoma.

• By taking away the PD-1/PD-L1 break, which is relevant inside the tumor, it is possible to study a tumor and determine if the PD-1/PD-L1 regulatory pathway was turning off T cells
• PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors are easier to study than older immunotherapies that require turning on the immune system
• Researchers are able to determine who will respond to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors and how to intervene in those patients that will not