Pavan Bachireddy, MD (Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist ’15-’19), Catherine J. Wu, MD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ’07-’12), and colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, reported that a new treatment approach, using repeated doses of the immunotherapy drug ipilimumab, may be able to restore a complete remission for some patients with advanced blood cancers that relapse after stem-cell transplant. In this Phase I study, 59 percent of patients receiving the highest dose of therapy (22 total) had a significant response ranging from complete remission to reduced tumor burden. This strategy could potentially prevent such relapses in the future. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
