New skin cancer treatment helps patients live 10 years after diagnosis, study finds

Combination of two drugs stops immune system attacking healthy tissue

A new skin cancer treatment has been found to help patients live more than 10 years after diagnosis, a study shows.
A combination of two drugs allows patients with advanced melanoma to live an average of 10 years post-diagnosis, data show.
Only one in 20 patients with the stage four condition would survive for five years just 15 years ago, with many dying less than a year after being diagnosed.
Around 20,000 people are diagnosed with melanoma every year in the UK, with cases rising as a result of increased UV exposure and cases in older people.
A decade-long study investigated two immunotherapy drugs, ipilimumab and nivolumab, which work by stopping the patient’s immune system from attacking healthy tissues.
Almost 1,000 patients at more than 130 sites worldwide were recruited for the study, which was presented at the annual congress presented at the European Society of Molecular Oncology.
One third received the double-drug cocktail, another third had only ipilimumab and the final third received only nivolumab.
More than a third of the patients on the two-drug protocol were alive at the end of the study 10 years later, and many patients in the study died from causes that were not melanoma.
The melanoma-specific survival rate for patients on both drugs was 52 per cent, data show, compared to 44 per cent with nivolumab, and 23 per cent with ipilimumab.
The researchers said in the paper: “These 10-year data underscore how immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy has helped to change the long-term prognosis for patients with advanced melanoma and highlight the potential for a cure in patients who have a response to this type of treatment.” 
James Larkin, a consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS foundation trust and a professor at the Institute of Cancer Research, told The Guardian: “The definition of cure is to return someone to their normal life expectancy for their age and state of health.
“Having treated a lot of these patients over the past 10 years it seems that some are cured: they’re back to their normal lives, they’re getting on with things.”
Dr Sam Godfrey, the science engagement lead at Cancer Research UK, said: “Over the last decade, there have been big improvements in survival for people with advanced melanoma skin cancer, partially because of the introduction of a group of immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors.
“This study indicates that combining two of these checkpoint inhibitors led to more people surviving their disease for 10 years or more.
“Promising results like this show how vital ongoing research into cancer is, to help people live longer, better lives.”
The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.