Combination Immunotherapy For High-Risk And Advanced Melanoma Patients.

8534 Background: Patients with metastatic melanoma have a poor outcome. We hypothesize that combination immunotherapy can synergistically activate host immunity to generate an effective treatment option for high risk, resected stage III, recurrent, refractory or stage IV melanoma. Methods: We completed a phase II clinical trial of HyperAcute Melanoma vaccine (NLG-12036, NewLink Genetics) combined with pegylated interferon (PEG-Intron). Trial design was a 12-week regimen with the initial 4 weekly treatments consisting of NLG-12036 alone (intradermally) followed by 8 additional treatments of NLG-12036 + PEG-Intron (subcutaneously, 6 µg/kg). Trial endpoints include clinical response, overall safety and correlative findings for observed anti-tumor effect. Results: N=25, median age 60, 68% male with 21 patients completing the trial, 4 stopped due to progressive disease (PD). NLG-12036 related common side effects include erythema and induration at the injection site, without significant grade 3 or 4 toxicities ...