Testing immunotherapy for advanced skin cancer in kidney transplant patients

This study is testing whether a combination of four medications—nivolumab, ipilimumab, sirolimus, and prednisone—can safely treat advanced skin cancers (like melanoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, or squamous cell carcinoma) in people who have received a kidney transplant. The main challenge is that the immunotherapy medications work by boosting your immune system, which could potentially threaten your transplanted kidney. This trial will see if carefully managing the medications together can fight the cancer while keeping your transplant safe.

People who receive kidney transplants take medications to suppress their immune system so their body doesn't reject the new kidney. Unfortunately, this makes them more likely to develop certain aggressive skin cancers. Standard cancer treatments don't work well for these advanced cancers, and immunotherapy—which is very effective for skin cancer in non-transplant patients—has been too risky to use. This trial is exploring whether this medication combination can be safely used in transplant patients by balancing cancer treatment with transplant protection.