Dr. Kudchadkar on Combining Therapies for Melanoma

Ragini Kudchadkar, MD, assistant professor, medical oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the potential for combining therapies for the treatment of melanoma.

Kudchadkar believes that combination therapy is the future of melanoma treatment, especially with immunotherapies. In melanoma, Kudchadkar says, there remains a need for patients to respond quickly and maintain long-term benefit.

The combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab, of which data was presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting, demonstrated tumor reduction in about 80% of patients, Kudchadkar says. Though this is exciting, it is worth noting that many patients had to discontinue treatment because of toxicity. Kudchadkar says there is a need for a larger population study in order to get a clearer toxicity profile of this drug combination when used to treat patients with melanoma.