Melanoma status of all patients ranked by the duration of follow up in months and years after entering. The time line for each patient is censored at death, initiation of chemotherapy, or when last examined. Red indicates no clinically evident disease (NED) by examination and chest x-ray for at least 8 weeks, and subsequent negative scans. Several patients had NED* when lost to follow up. Black indicates presence of metastatic melanoma. Note, many patients had prolonged periods of stable or slowly progressive disease. 4 patients who had NED for >2 years experienced a late relapse as indicated. A Patient was experiencing a rapid regression of many metastases after 27 weeks of CK injections (with dense lymphocytic infiltrates in never injected nodules) when she switched to a geographically closer physician, and began receiving injections of an allogeneic melanoma vaccine to enhance immune responses. Within 8 weeks after the last CKs and after 4 weekly injections of vaccine she demonstrated NED. Subsequent indicated recurrences were treated by irradiation or excision.61
B The recurrence of melanoma after 20 years of NED subsequently responded to Ipilimumab.