Patients with metastatic melanoma resistant to anti-PD-(L)1 immune checkpoint inhibitors should be considered for combination ipilimumab plus anti-PD-1 therapy rather than ipilimumab alone, researchers say.

Professor Georgina Long of the Melanoma Institute Australia in Sydney led the retrospective cohort study, which involved 15 melanoma centres across the US and Europe, as well as Australia.

Data from 355 patients treated between 2011 and 2020 at the centres were included, with 193 having ipilimumab plus either pembrolizumab or nivolimumab and 162 having ipilimumab monotherapy as their second-line treatment.

All were adults with unresectable stage III or IV melanoma who had not been previously treated with ipilimumab and had either innate or acquired resistance to anti-PD-(L)1.