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New clinical trial might change the standard treatment for melanoma

September 10, 2017 at 6:05 p.m. EDT
Human melanoma cells growing in tissue culture. (City of Hope National Medical Center)

In a head-to-head comparison of two immunotherapy drugs used to prevent relapse in certain patients with advanced melanoma, one treatment was the clear winner — and it's not the one that most people get.

The international study, released Sunday, involved 900 patients whose tumors were removed by surgery but who remained at high risk of recurrence of melanoma, an often aggressive form of skin cancer.