CNRCS professor Shaun Zhang recently spoke with Bloomberg's First Word regarding the pending FDA approval of Bristol-Myers Squibb's metastatic melanoma drug Yervoy's (ipilimumab).

"Combination therapy may make Yervoy more efficacious; likely combination with a tumor vaccine that can stimulate a specific anti tumor response so that Yervoy can potentiate that response," said Dr. Shaun Zhang, of the Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling, University of Houston. "You can have one vaccine generate immune responses and then ipilimumab can potentiate and enhance the immune response."

On March 25, the drug won FDA approval as the first drug proven to extend the lives of patients with advanced melanoma. The approval is expected to provide exposure to other immunotherapies in development. Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer and the fastest growing cancer in the United States.

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