Experience in daily practice with ipilimumab for thetreatment of patients with metastatic melanoma: Anearly increase in lymphocyte and eosinophil countsis associated with improved survival

Background: Ipilimumab is a recently approved immunotherapy that has demonstrated an improvement in the overallsurvival (OS) of patients with metastatic melanoma. We report a single-institution experience in patients treated in acompassionate-use program.Patients and methods: In this prospective study, patients were treated between June 2010 and September 2011.Inclusion criteria were a diagnosis of unresectable stage III or IV melanoma, at least one previous line of chemotherapy,and survival 12 weeks after the first perfusion. Four courses of ipilimumab were administered at a dose of 3 mg/kgevery 3 weeks.