SAO PAOLO, Brazil, March 2 (UPI) -- Using both immunotherapy and chemotherapy to treat malignant melanoma has not been found to improve survival rates, according to a Brazilian review.
Study leader Dr. Andre Sasse of the research center Onco-Evidencias in Sao Paolo reviewed 18 studies of 2,625 patients who were treated with either chemotherapy alone or a combination of both.
There was no difference seen in survival rates, but toxic effects were increased when immunotherapy was added to chemotherapy, according to the study published in The Cochrane Library.
The researchers found that patients have more serious side effects, such as anemia, when the two treatments were combined.
Dr. Jedd Wolchok, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said in a statement that it is difficult to tease out which of the two immunotherapy agents might be responsible for the side effects.
