OBJECTIVES: Payers, patients, and clinical decision-makers expect value from innovative anti-cancer agents. Ipilimumab, an anti–CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody, has been shown to provide durable long-term survival for a proportion of unresectable/metastatic melanoma patients, with follow-up in some out to 10 years; however, median overall survival (OS) analyses do not adequately capture this type of prolonged survival effect. Therefore, additional value metrics are necessary to completely describe ipilimumab’s survival impact in treatment-naïve metastatic melanoma patients vs other anti-cancer agents. METHODS: We conducted a literature review of trial data supporting approval of agents for various metastatic cancers within the last 10 years. Metrics included primary/secondary OS, median OS at approval, and Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival curves. Each agent was plotted, with x-axis reflecting total drug cost and y-axis reflecting improvement vs comparator for median and mean OS (area under KM curve), 1-year survival, and 1-year number needed to treat (NNT) to avoid 1 death. A line indicating an average cost-to-benefit ratio identified agents with highest relative value per metric. Ipilimumab (3-mg/kg monotherapy) pooled phase II/III data from chemotherapy-naïve patients were assessed within this value metric portfolio. RESULTS: Ipilimumab demonstrated high relative median OS improvement vs comparator (48.4% [0.3%–63.3% with other agents]), the greatest absolute and relative mean OS improvements (6.9 months [0.2–6.4 months with other agents]; 60.1% [1.3%–34.3% with other agents]), the greatest relative 1-year survival improvement amongst first-line agents (41.9% [4.2%–38% with other agents]), and the lowest NNT (5 patients [6–66 with other agents]). Ipilimumab’s high relative value was confirmed when plotting each drug’s clinical performance vs total drug costs. CONCLUSIONS: Using relevant survival metrics, ipilimumab demonstrates high relative value within a value metric portfolio in metastatic diseases. Long-term survival data for other agents for metastatic cancers are not yet available to estimate ipilimumab’s long-term relative value.