Dr James Larkin, a Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden, London, UK, told the 2015 European Cancer Congress [1], that results from the CheckMate 067
phase III
clinical trial had already shown that the combination
of the two drugs, which target two
different pathways that regulate the immune system, improved the progression - free survival in patients with melanoma who had not received any other treatment.
They concede that those effects could be due in part to the placebo effect or improvements independent
of the procedure, but they say the results are promising enough to warrant a
phase II
trial in 108 patients at four
different clinical centers, which is underway now.