Skin Cancer & Melanoma

Interventions can improve sun protection behaviors, but this does not necessarily correlate with skin cancer/melanoma outcomes, according to a review for the USPSTF.

The incidence of Merkel cell carcinoma, an aggressive neuroendocrine skin cancer, has grown rapidly since the disease was first described in 1972.

Medicial oncologist and melanoma expert Dr. Jeffrey Weber discusses the role of adjuvant immunotherapy in the setting of stage III melanoma.

The combination of selumetinib with dacarbazine did not offer improved survival outcomes over placebo/dacarbazine in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma.

Here we summarize the available genomic and genetic tests for melanoma, and the level of evidence supporting each of these. We also discuss the current impact of genomic sequencing on the management of melanoma, as well as roles it may play in the near future.

Vemurafenib offered numerical improvement in disease-free survival in patients with resected melanoma, but the results did not reach statistical significance.

Circulating tumor DNA can help differentiate pseudoprogression from true progression in patients with melanoma who are treated with PD-1 inhibitors.

A retrospective review found that obesity is associated with improved progression-free and overall survival in certain patients with metastatic melanoma.

Neoadjuvant treatment with dabrafenib and trametinib offered significantly improved event-free survival over standard of care in high-risk melanoma patients.

Some patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma who receive immunotherapy and who continue therapy after progression have decreased tumor burden, and survival is improved when the therapy is continued as well, according to a new pooled analysis.

Researchers discovered that melanoma patients who received immunotherapy while taking a pan beta blocker lived longer than patients who received immunotherapy alone.

Metastatic melanoma patients treated with pembrolizumab who achieve a complete response can maintain those responses, even after discontinuation of therapy.

The FDA has granted priority review to the combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) for the adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations after complete disease resection.

The FDA has approved nivolumab for the adjuvant treatment of melanoma; it showed superiority compared with the standard of care in this patient population.

Use of a brief educational video increased hairdressers’ knowledge of melanoma detection and improved their self-confidence to detect skin lesions.

The gut microbiome affects the efficacy of PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade immunotherapy against melanoma and other cancers, according to a pair of recent studies.

Levels of circulating tumor DNA predicted worse outcomes including relapse and survival in patients with resected stage II/III melanoma, according to the results of a study.

Here, we review the features of mucosal melanoma that distinguish it from melanomas arising at other sites, and we highlight recent biological discoveries and emerging treatment options for this aggressive disease.

Treatment within 30 days of melanoma diagnosis was associated with improved outcomes; overall survival decreased in patients waiting longer than 90 days for surgery.

Researchers have found that melanoma patients may benefit from a holiday from MAPK inhibitors while alternative therapies stave off emergence of resistant melanoma clones.

The off-label use of the beta-blocker propranolol significantly reduced disease recurrence among patients with non-metastatic melanoma, according to the results of a prospective, non-randomized study.

In France and other countries with low to moderate incidence of melanoma, a new study has proposed recommending genetic testing using the rule of 3-screening those with 3 or more primary melanomas or genetically related cancers-instead of the rule of 2.

Nivolumab significantly improved recurrence-free survival compared with ipilimumab in patients with stage III/IV melanoma at high risk for recurrence, according to results of the CheckMate 238 study.

In this article, we provide an overview of the currently available systemic agents, including immunotherapeutic agents and targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors. We also provide a practical management algorithm to guide the practicing oncologist in the use of both of these new therapies and the more traditional local treatments.

One year of combination treatment with dabrafenib plus trametinib reduced the risk for disease recurrence or death by more than half in patients with stage III high-risk BRAF V600E/K melanoma.