Saw my Dr yesterday
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Saw my Dr yesterday

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Saw my Dr yesterday

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    • January 15, 2019 at 3:12 pm
    caman
    Participant

    Considering the features of my Primary ive been fortunate it hasnt spread yet.  It will be 1 yr in April.  My Dr. told me today Immunotherapy only works in 40 percent of the patients.  Is that a true number?  I wonder if he meant 40 percent being cured rather than just prolonging life. 

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      • January 15, 2019 at 3:13 pm
      caman
      Participant

      Sorry, that was me asking

      • January 15, 2019 at 4:41 pm
      Bubbles
      Participant

      Yes, what your doc told you is true.  Anti-PD-1, whether nivolumab (Opdivo) or pembrolizumab (Keytruda), has what researchers refer to as a roughly "40% response rate" when used as a single agent. Meaning, of 100 patients with melanoma given the drug, 40 will respond and 60 will not.  Ipilimumab (Yervoy) has a 15% response rate.  These rates increase to 50+% when the ipi/nivo combo is utilized.  All of these drugs are categorized as 'immunotherapy'.  A positive about these responses is that with immunotherapy, researchers find that many of these responses are "durable"….meaning last over years.  There is more info under "immunotherapy" in this post if you are interested:

      https://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2017/08/melanoma-intel-primer-for-current.html  

      While melanoma therapy has made tremendous strides in the past 8 years….we clearly have a long way to go!  c

        • January 15, 2019 at 5:11 pm
        caman
        Participant

        Thank you.  Any clue why some don't respond?…Is it age, features of the melanoma, genes, etc??

        • January 15, 2019 at 6:04 pm
        Bubbles
        Participant

        We don't really know.

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