Dr. Eggermont on the Impact of Adjuvant Anti-PD-L1 Agents in Melanoma

Alexander M. M. Eggermont, MD, PhD, director general of Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus Grand Paris in Villejuif, France, discusses the impact of adjuvant anti—PD-L1 agents on the treatment landscape of melanoma.

In a study presented at the 2018 AACR Annual Meeting, adjuvant pembrolizumab (Keytruda) reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 43% in patients with resected, high-risk stage III melanoma. The EORTC 1325-MG/KEYNOTE-054 trial randomized patients to 200 mg of pembrolizumab (n = 514) or placebo (n = 505) intravenously every 3 weeks for a total of 18 doses (approximately 1 year) or until disease recurrence or unacceptable toxicity.

These results, paired with the FDA approval of nivolumab (Opdivo) as an adjuvant treatment for patients with completely resected melanoma with lymph node involvement or metastatic disease, has completely changed this setting, says Eggermont. The previously favored ipilimumab (Yervoy) is likely to be replaced with 2 efficacious PD-1 inhibitors, Eggermont concludes.

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