The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the use of ipilimumab for the treatment of previously treated metastatic melanoma. It is the first drug approved for metastatic, or advanced, melanoma in more than a decade.
“Ipilimumab is the first in a new class of drugs that has been shown to offer a survival benefit for metastatic melanoma, which is often a fatal disease, and hopefully, this will lead to the development of related treatments for other cancers,” said F. Stephen Hodi, MD, director of the melanoma treatment center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a lead investigator of the national clinical study of ipilimumab.
The number of cases of metastatic melanoma, considered to be one the most serious form of skin cancer, has increased during the past 30 years, and its death rate is rising faster than most other cancers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the use of ipilimumab for the treatment of previously treated metastatic melanoma. It is the first drug approved for metastatic, or advanced, melanoma in more than a decade.
“Ipilimumab is the first in a new class of drugs that has been shown to offer a survival benefit for metastatic melanoma, which is often a fatal disease, and hopefully, this will lead to the development of related treatments for other cancers,” said F. Stephen Hodi, MD, director of the melanoma treatment center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a lead investigator of the national clinical study of ipilimumab.
The number of cases of metastatic melanoma, considered to be one the most serious form of skin cancer, has increased during the past 30 years, and its death rate is rising faster than most other cancers.