Long-term cure rates with adjuvant nivolumab or ipilimumab after resection of stage III or IV melanoma

Standard-of-care treatments for patients with resected stage III or IV melanoma include nivolumab (NIVO) and ipilimumab (IPI). Combined analyses of the phase 3 trials CheckMate 238 (NIVO versus IPI) and EORTC 18071 (IPI versus placebo) used mixture cure models to estimate cure rates. Cured patients were assumed to experience no disease recurrence and mortality risks similar to the general population. The estimated cure rates were 48.3% (95% CI 41.8-54.9%) with NIVO and 38.2% (32.7-44.1) with IPI in CheckMate 238, and 38.0% (32.1-44.2) with IPI and 29.2% (24.4-34.6) with placebo in EORTC 18071. In indirect comparison of the two trials, the odds of cure were significantly higher with NIVO than with placebo (OR 2.33; 95% CI 1.49-3.65). The authors conclude that after resection of stage III or IV melanoma, both NIVO and IPI resulted in higher cure rates than placebo, with NIVO providing the highest cure rate.