Melanoma treatment using thymosin – long-term impact on patients.
An article published in the journal Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy analyzed the overall survival time after treatment for metastatic melanoma. Patients were treated at various periods between June 2004 and August 2011, and their status was reported as of July 1, 2017. Italian researchers used two types of therapies: one with Thymosin Alpha 1 (Tα1) and dacarbazine, and the other with immune checkpoint inhibitors, mainly ipilimumab (IPI), which binds to the CTLA-4 antigen on the surface of T lymphocytes, enhancing their activity.
The first group described consisted of 61 melanoma patients, most of whom had metastases. Forty were treated using Tα1, while an additional 21 also received IPI. Among these, 24% had already been treated for this condition. The median survival for patients treated with the Tα1-IPI combination was 57.8 months, while those treated with Tα1 alone had a median survival of 7.8 months. The median overall survival time for the entire group was 13.3 months.
In the second part of the study, among 95 melanoma patients, 17 received Tα1 prior to IPI therapy. Here, differences were also observed, with the median survival time for the Tα1-IPI group being 38.4 months, compared to 8 months for those treated with IPI alone. Additionally, while the one-year survival rate did not differ significantly between the two groups, the rates for 3, 4, and 5 years were statistically different, with 52.9%, 41.2%, and 41.2% survival for the combination therapy group, compared to 20.8%, 16.9%, and 14.3% for the group that did not receive Tα1 beforehand.
The results of both analyses indicate a synergistic effect between the two treatments, and the authors describe the interaction of Tα1 and IPI as an „immunologic partnership” that is complex and sophisticated, requiring further research.
The full article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14712598.2018.1494717.