Author(s)

Fengxin Wang, QingYu Wang, Linyi Zhang

Corresponding Author

Fengxin Wang

ABSTRACT

Immune checkpoint is a kind of immunosuppressive molecules, which regulate the immune response, so as to avoid damage and destruction to healthy tissues. In some special tumors, immune checkpoints are the main reason for their immune tolerance. The immune checkpoint inhibitor reactivates the anti-tumor immune response and promotes the clearance of immune-mediated tumor cells by blocking the co inhibitory signal pathway. Melanoma is a disease in which malignant cells are formed in melanocytes. Immune checkpoint inhibitor is one of the current drugs for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. It mainly includes 3 types of drugs, which are ipilimumab, pembrolizumab and nivolumab. Ipilimumab belongs to CTLA-4 blocker, pembrolizumab and nivolumab belong to PD-1 / PD-L1 blocker. They have different clinical effects and adverse reactions in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. In this review, the effects and adverse reactions of these three drugs in the clinical treatment of metastatic melanoma were systematically introduced.

KEYWORDS

Immune checkpoint, immune checkpoint inhibitor, PD-1 / PD-L1 blocker, melanoma, ipilimumab, pembrolizumab, nivolumab