Treament-free survival after nivolumab versus pembrolizumab versus nivolumab-ipilimumab for advanced melanoma

Treatment-free survival (TFS) is an alternative time-to-event end point, characterizing time spent free of subsequent systemic anticancer (SSAC) therapy, providing a patient-centric view of therapy regimens. A multicenter retrospective cohort study of 316 patients with advanced melanoma receiving first-line immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in Alberta (Canada) found that patients treated with nivolumab-ipilimumab experienced a mean TFS of 12.4 months, compared with a mean of 8.9 months with single-agent nivolumab and 11.1 months with single-agent pembrolizumab. The authors conclude that patients receiving first-line combined nivolumab-ipilimumab experienced a numerically longer TFS compared with those receiving single-agent anti-PD-1 therapy, and that TFS represented a patient-centric and informative end point.