A Phase 2 interventional study of Nivolumab and Ipilimumab in Melanoma, sponsored by H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-10.
Sponsored by H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment
The purpose of the study is to see if periodic (serial) blood-based testing of ctDNA (circulating tumor DNA) while receiving study treatment with study drug therapy for advanced melanoma (skin cancer) can be used to decide the best plan for care during and after initial study drug treatment.
3,370 studies on the registry are indexed under Melanoma; 578 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 56 is above the median of 40 across 2,649 interventional studies indexed under Melanoma.
Browse Melanoma studies →H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute is the lead sponsor of 540 studies on the registry; 75 are open to participants now.
Of its 99 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 57 (58%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.
PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Adjuvant and neoadjuvant
Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECOG performance status
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
PD-1, PD-L1 and checkpoint inhibitors
PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.
PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients with resectable stage III/IV melanoma eligible for neoadjuvant treatment will be enrolled. Patient cases will be reviewed with the surgery team to confirm surgical resectability prior to enrollment and CT imaging will be obtained at baseline, as per standard of care.
Drug: Nivolumab · Drug: Ipilimumab · Diagnostic Test: Haystack MRD ctDNA Assay
Patients who already underwent complete surgical resection of stage IIB/IIC/III/IV melanoma (and did not receive prior neoadjuvant treatment.) All patients in this cohort must be within 10 weeks of surgery and have CT scans post-surgery prior to study enrollment to confirm they are radiographically disease-free. Following study enrollment, all patients will have the first ctDNA analyses done within 12 weeks of date of surgery.
Drug: Nivolumab · Drug: Ipilimumab · Diagnostic Test: Haystack MRD ctDNA Assay
Administered intravenously as neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant therapy for melanoma according to protocol-defined dosing schedules.
Administered intravenously in combination with nivolumab in participants meeting ctDNA-defined criteria for treatment escalation.
Tumor-informed circulating tumor DNA assay performed on serial plasma samples to evaluate molecular residual disease and guide treatment adaptation.
Event-Free Survival (EFS) in the Neoadjuvant Cohort
Defined as the time from initiation of study treatment to disease progression precluding surgery, melanoma recurrence, progression, or death from any cause.
Time frame: Up to 5 Years
Relapse-Free Survival (RFS) in the Adjuvant Cohort
Defined as the time from initiation of adjuvant treatment to melanoma recurrence or death from any cause.
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Pathologic Response Rate (Neoadjuvant Cohort)
Proportion of participants achieving pathologic response in the surgical specimen following neoadjuvant treatment, including pathologic complete response (pCR) and major pathologic response (MPR).
Time frame: Up to 12 weeks
Objective Response Rate (ORR) by RECIST v1.1 (Neoadjuvant Cohort)
Proportion of participants achieving a complete response or partial response according to RECIST version 1.1 based on radiographic assessments performed during neoadjuvant treatment.
Time frame: Up to 12 weeks
Relapse With Undetectable ctDNA
Frequency of participants who maintain undetectable circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) during serial monitoring and subsequently experience clinical and/or radiographic melanoma relapse.
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Started Oct 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Oct 2030, 48 months after the start.
Of 277 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Melanoma, half reached primary completion within 67 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 41 and three quarters within 94. This study's planned 48 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 383 studies reached it within 53 months; a quarter within 32 and three quarters within 88.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
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Studies of the drugs tested here: Nivolumab · Ipilimumab
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute →