There is Enough Room for Novartis, Bristol Meyer Squibb and Pfizer for each to take part in the Melanoma Space Melanoma.. Jim Breitfeller

There is Enough Room for Novartis, Bristol Meyer Squibb and Pfizer for each to take part in the Melanoma Space.

With ASCO Annual meeting coming up at the end of May, I believe that there will be some excitement around monoclonal antibodies. In particular, anti-CTLA-4 blockage treatment will be under the spotlight. What will the overall survival rates look like? Well, speaking from my experience, anti-CTLA-4 has prolonged my life for over 27 months where as a stage IV Patient, I was given 6 to 9 months. This could not have happen with out the extra help from Interleukin -2.

See, once the CD4+ T-cells activated, they need to grow and cross-prime the CD8+ T-cells. While activated T-cells secretes IL-2 at a certain concentration to help promote proliferation of the CD4+ T-cells. If there is too much IL-2 at the beginning of the immune response, I believe that the ratio of CD4/CD8/CD3 would be altered causing
the Tregs (CD4+ CD25 fox P3) to gain the upper hand of suppression of the immune response. A subset of CD4 + cells called CD4 + CD25 + regulatory T (Treg) cells that expresses Forkhead box P3 (Fox P3).

With just adding Anti-CTLA-4 first, It has been reported that it suppresses the T regs and pushes the balance towards an immune response. Once the immune response is in progress, the CD4+ T-cell is needed to co-stimulate the CD8+ T-cell. A source of these cofactors for effective CD8+ T-cell stimulation can be provided by CD4+ T cells that release critical amounts of IL-2.

Once the CD8+ T-cell is activated, and is cultured in the presence of Interleukin 2, it results in the development of effector cells which are cytotoxic to tumor cells.

This is why we the patients need the Pharmacitical companies to work together. Each therapy will not work alone as a single agent. The response rate are between 10 and 22 percent for each therapy. If you do a sequential treatment with the proper dosage and timing, you will see a synergistic outcome.


“There are three parts of the equation in a clinical trial. There’s who has control, who gets the reward, and who takes the risk. Patients take all the risk, they have no control, and they get no reward. Patients ought to be the ones driving the process and get the reward out of it and have the control, since they are the ones that take the risk.”

Greg Simons


If we are taking all the risk, shouldn’t we have a say in our Destiny?

“We need to all work together for the common good of the Melanoma Patients”

“We need to take greed out of the equation and just do what is right for humanity”


Take care

Jimmy B