Duke Health Nov 25 2024 Duke Cancer Institute researchers have identified potential biomarkers that predict the likelihood for checkpoint inhibitor drugs to backfire, driving hyper-progression of melanoma cells instead of unleashing the immune system to fight them. Prior studies have shown that cancer patients who develop hyper-progression while on checkpoint inhibitors have a median overall survival of 4.6 months compared to 7.6 months in patients without the complication. The phenomenon has