MELANOMAGROUP

In 1969, Professor Georges Mathé, the former President of the EORTC, with a small group of colleagues from all over Europe, decided to create a cooperative group on cutaneous melanoma. Mathé proposed that the newly created group should conduct the first trial of BCG as a non-specific adjuvant immunotherapy of melanoma. At that time, the first evidence of immune reactions against tumours had just been established and in London, Peter Alexander, Gordon Hamilton-Fairley, Martin Lewis and Graham Currie, were responsible for the design of the first active specific immunotherapy of human melanoma. Notably, melanoma was the first solid tumour to be treated by immunotherapy. Unfortunately, unlike experimental models, the clinical results proved unsuccessful... The EORTC Melanoma Cooperative Group members were not discouraged and have continued to pursue many aspects of tumour immunology. Over the past years, the successive Chairmen of the EORTC MG, have enthusiastically fostered the..