Clinical Trials That Have Changed Practice at The Princess Margaret and Beyond

Melanoma

Melanoma is one of the most dangerous forms of skin cancer. Dr. Marcus Butler, Clinical Head of the Immune Profiling Team, is pleased to say that is starting to change.

“Now, instead of patients having a life expectancy of less than a year, we have patients living many, many years with no evidence of relapse of their cancer.”

Dr. Butler attributes this to recent laboratory discoveries of immune checkpoint inhibitors, which help the body's immune system to fight cancer. At The Princess Margaret, laboratory research and the clinical trials that follow, are an important part of the Tumour Immunotherapy Program.

“We have definitely achieved, through these drugs, an increased number of patients who have long-term survival, and it looks like a cure.”

The next step in clinical trials is working to understand why some patients respond to these new treatments and others do not.