Dr. Wolchok on Weighing Risk and Benefit of Nivolumab/Ipilimumab Combo in Melanoma

Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, chief, Melanoma and Immunotherapeutics Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses weighing the overall survival (OS) benefit with the increased risk of toxicities seen with the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in treatment-naïve patients with advanced melanoma, during the AACR Annual Meeting.

Deciding whether to use this combination requires physicians to have a full discussion of all of the data with their patients, including the OS, response rates, and toxicities, Wolchok says. A patient's comorbidities and expectations also need to be taken into account, he adds.

This combination represents an opportunity to weigh risk and benefit on an individual patient basis, he says.