Melanoma

Nivolumab monotherapy, or in combination with ipilimumab, continued to demonstrate durable improvements in overall survival compared with ipilimumab alone in patients with previously untreated advanced melanoma.

About 40% of patients who progressed on placebo following resection of melanoma experienced an objective response with crossover to pembrolizumab in the phase 3 EORTC 1325/KEYNOTE-054 trial.

A higher overall response rate was noted with lifileucel and pembrolizumab versus pembrolizumab alone in patients with checkpoint inhibitor–naïve advanced melanoma, according to phase 2 trial results that were reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Progression-free survival more than doubled when relatlimab was added to nivolumab to treated patients with previously untreated, unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

The study concluded that immune-related adverse events were more common than previously anticipated following adjuvant anti–PD-1 therapy and persisted with prolonged follow-up.

Darovasertib as monotherapy for the treatment for patients with heavily pretreated metastatic uveal melanoma induced responses and promising rates of overall survival, according to preliminary data from a phase 1/2 trial.

Lifileucel (LN-144), the tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, showed a positive objective response rate with the median duration of response not yet reached after more than 28 months of follow-up in patients with advanced melanoma.

The combination adjuvant treatment of ipilimumab plus nivolumab did not meet the dual primary endpoints of the phase 3 CheckMate-915 trial, failing to improve relapse-free survival in the intent-to-treat and PD-L1 of less than 1% populations.

Frontline treatment with tebentafusp significantly improved overall survival in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma, according to data from the phase 3 IMCgp100-202 trial.

When compared against nivolumab alone, relatlimab plus nivolumab delayed progression in patients with unresectable stage III and IV untreated melanoma.

Adjuvant immunotherapy treatment was associated with a significant survival benefit for patients with stage II melanoma in a study presented at the Society of Surgical Oncology 2021 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care.

First-line treatment with nivolumab plus ipilimumab showed a moderate improvement in overall survival and a manageable safety profile in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma.

During the age of systemic immunotherapy, investigators observed a change in the incidence of second primary cancers after metastatic melanoma that included solid tumor and hematologic malignancies.

The novel viral immunotherapy PVSRIPO is designed to stimulate a patient’s innate and adaptive immune system to promote an antitumor response and establish long-term immunologic memory to help keep their cancer at bay.

The clinical trial of tebentafusp (IMCgp100) versus investigator’s choice in metastatic uveal melanoma met its pre-defined boundaries for statistical significance of the primary end point of overall survival in its first pre-planned interim analysis.

“The data reported, in addition to its ease of use, demonstrate the potential of [tavokinogene telseplasmid] in combination with pembrolizumab as a next-generation intratumoral IL-12 therapy that can induce regression of both locally treated and untreated distant and visceral lesions,” said Paolo A. Ascierto, MD.

Results from this study suggest that this combination is active and should be considered for this patient population, though additional research is still necessary.

Pretreatment circulating tumor DNA was found to be a reliable indicator of patient outcome for those with metastatic melanoma in the first-line immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment setting, but not in the second-line setting.

The study is evaluating the nivolumab-ipilimumab combination versus nivolumab alone in patients who have had a complete surgical removal of stage IIIb/c/d or stave IV melanoma.

Data for the phase 3 COMBI-i trial showed that spartalizumab combined with dabrafenib and trametinib did not meet its primary end xpoint of investigator-assessed progression-free survival.

Cemiplimab demonstrated an objective response rate of 31% in patients with locally advanced basal cell carcinoma who progress on or are intolerant to hedgehog inhibitors.

Partner Therapeutics, Inc. announced that its EA6141 study evaluating sargramostim in combination with ipilumimab and nivolumab to treat melanoma was approved to begin enrollment.

The study was evaluating spartalizumab in combination with dabrafenib and trametinib among untreated patients with stage IIIC or stage IV BRAFV600 mutation-positive cutaneous melanoma.

Data released from a phase 2b clinical trial showed statistically significant long-term survival for patients with stage III or IV melanoma at high-risk of recurrence.

The FDA approved atezolizumab plus cobimetinib and vemurafenib for the treatment of patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive advanced melanoma.

These findings highlight the need to raise public awareness of the importance of self-skin examination, and to encourage clinicians to have a lower threshold for undertaking skin examinations in bereaved individuals, according to the researchers.

A 79-year-old white man presented with an ulcerated chest wall lesion developing from an existing mole.

A recent study determined circulating tumor cells were associated with melanoma relapse, suggesting that this form of liquid biopsy could help identify patients who would benefit from adjuvant therapy.

The authors indicated that prospective clinical trials investigating DTIC-based systemic chemotherapies and liver-directed treatments are necessary to validate their findings.

The combination of encorafenib and cetuximab has shown promise in clinical testing for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma with a BRAFV600E or BRAFV600K mutation.