Pilot Study to Evaluate the Effects of a Vaccine (HSPPC-96) Combined With Ipilimumab in Patients With Advanced Melanoma

This is a randomized, open label, single-center, phase I-II trial to determine the safety, feasibility and immunogenicity of combination treatment of HSPPC-96 and ipilimumab in patients with therapeutically unresectable Stage III or Stage IV malignant melanoma. The main purpose of this study is to assess whether the administration of the combination of ipilimumab and HSPPC-96 is safe. The rationale for combining the two treatments resides in their respective roles on the immune system as described below and based on the clinical experience collected so far. HSPPC-96 is able to initiate a tumor specific immune response that ipilimumab could theoretically amplify by blocking a checkpoint that naturally down-regulates T cells.