Immunotherapy for Melanoma

Immunotherapy is a new generation of cancer therapies that are revolutionizing the treatment of melanoma and many other malignancies.

These drugs are significantly different from conventional cancer treatments, which include chemotherapy, radiation and newer medications that target genetic mutations in tumors that spur unchecked cell growth. Instead of attacking the tumors themselves with the aim of killing them, immunotherapies rally the body’s natural defenses and unleash the immune system to vanquish the cancer. There are several molecules on the surface of immune cells that need to be activated to launch an immune response. But because cancer cells share traits with healthy cells, the immune system doesn’t recognize them as aberrant, and cancer cells avoid detection. The new drugs help the body circumvent this bit of subterfuge.

What Is Immunotherapy for Melanoma Cancer?

For over 40 years, the Saint John’s Cancer Institute has investigated how tumors evolve in the context of the immune system.

Institute co-founder Donald L. Morton, MD, was an early advocate of finding ways to harness the immune system’s power to fight cancer. In the early 1970s, he pioneered a method of injecting Bacilli Calmette-Guérin (BCG), a weakened strain of the tuberculosis bacterium, directly into melanoma tumors, which was the first successful use of immunotherapy against metastatic human cancer. This research commenced in the melanoma research program under the late Dr. Donald L. Morton and continues today.

CTLA-4 Inhibitor

In 2011 the first of these drugs gained FDA approval. Ipilimumab is now used for metastatic melanoma. The drug is the first melanoma treatment that actually extended survival for people with late-stage disease. More than 20% of the patients were still alive three years later; most of them would have died otherwise. The drug thwarts the action of a protein known as CTLA-4.

This is a checkpoint molecule that acts as an “off switch” that cripples the T cells—the immune system’s foot soldiers—and stops them from harming healthy cells. But it can also block the T cells from attacking tumors.

PD-1 and PD-L1 Inihibtors

Meanwhile, pembrolizumab and nivolumab target other proteins on the surface of cells—called PD-1 and PD-L1—that also act as immune system brakes. Pembrolizumab produces a response in a stunning one-third of patients.

In addition to the expert medical care available from our team of cancer physicians, we offer a host of integrative and wellness services that aim to address the physical, emotional, social, mental, and spiritual needs of patients and their loved ones throughout the cancer journey.