Letter from the President

March 25, 2011

Dear Friends:

We welcome today’s decision by the FDA to approve ipilimumab for treatment of metastatic melanoma. Ipilimumab, which will be sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb as Yervoy, is the first drug approved for metastatic melanoma in 13 years and is the first drug ever to demonstrate improvement in overall survival for this disease.

This is an exciting breakthrough for the field of melanoma. Previously, patients with metastatic melanoma had few effective treatment options. The median survival for patients with Stage IV melanoma remains less than one year, and thus new therapies like ipilimumab are urgently needed.

Ipilimumab (or anti-CTLA-4) is an immunotherapy that works by stimulating the body’s immune system to more effectively attack cancer cells. The importance of CTLA-4 in cancer therapy was discovered and clinically developed by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a team that includes James Allison, Ph.D., and Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D. Both investigators are engaged in an MRA-sponsored project to explore new therapeutic combinations with this drug, as well as a project jointly funded by MRA and the Cancer Research Institute to improve upon this approach by identifying those patients who could benefit most from ipilimumab. In addition, MRA is funding researchers at other medical centers to study additional biomarkers of drug response and to combine ipilimumab with other agents, specifically kinase inhibitors and bevacizumab. These immunotherapeutic advances give hope to people suffering from metastatic melanoma.

These and related topics were among those discussed this week at a prestigious meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Banbury Center and co-sponsored by MRA, which focused on curing melanoma. This meeting provided an opportunity for a critical review of recent advances in melanoma therapy, identification of new lines of research, and discussion of the policy and funding options needed to stimulate the development of even more efficacious drugs to treat melanoma and other cancers. Suzanne Topalian, M.D., MRA’s chief science officer, represented MRA by presenting to and participating in this gathering of some of the field’s top researchers.

Today’s approval may have implications beyond the field of melanoma, as ipilimumab has also been studied for effectiveness in other cancers. Other organizations, led by our colleagues at the Prostate Cancer Foundation, have funded immunotherapy research and contributed to today’s results.

We know that the battle to find a treatment and cure melanoma has yet to be won. But promising news such as this encourages us to redouble our efforts to find effective treatments and ultimately a cure for this deadly disease. MRA continues to press forward in finding cutting-edge science that will bring us closer to a day when no one suffers or dies from melanoma. We are grateful to all those who join us in this mission.

Wendy K.D. Selig

President & CEO

Melanoma Research Alliance            

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