Melanoma & Skin Cancer

Adjuvant pembrolizumab continued to showcase improved relapse-free survival over placebo in patients with resected high-risk stage II melanoma with 6 months of additional follow-up.

Dirk Schadendorf, MD, discusses expected toxicities with the combination of encorafenib, binimetinib, and pembrolizumab in BRAF V600E/K-mutated melanoma.

Alexander J. Stratigos, MD, PhD, discussed the effect cemiplimab will have on the treatment landscape of patients with advanced BCC.

The FDA has granted a fast track designation to the universal cancer vaccine UV1 for use in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma, either as an add-on therapy to pembrolizumab or to ipilimumab.

A linear correlation between magnitude of circulating tumor DNA reduction and improved overall survival was observed in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma who were treated with tebentafusp, suggesting that ctDNA may be a better surrogate end point for OS compared with RECIST response criteria.

The European Medicines Agency has validated its marketing authorization application for the fixed-dose combination of relatlimab and nivolumab in the frontline treatment of adult and pediatric patients with advanced melanoma.

Omid Hamid, MD, discusses the integration of tumor infiltrating lymphocyte–based therapy into the melanoma armamentarium.

Hussein A. Tawbi, MD, PhD, discusses the safety and efficacy achieved with relatlimab plus nivolumab in the RELATIVITY-047 trial and sheds light on the clinical significance of the data in the melanoma treatment paradigm.

The FDA has granted priority review to a biologics license application for the fixed-dose combination of relatlimab plus nivolumab for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older and weighing at least 40 kg who have unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

Jason J. Luke, MD, FACP, discusses the results of the phase 3 KEYNOTE-716 trial in high-risk stage II melanoma.

Circulating tumor DNA was a better predictor for survival than RECIST 1.1 for patients with previously treated, HLA-A*02:01-positive metastatic uveal melanoma assigned to tebentafusp.

Adjuvant pembrolizumab led to a significant reduction in the risk of disease recurrence or death compared with placebo in patients with resected, high-risk stage II melanoma.

Filip Janku, MD, PhD, discusses the results form a phase 1 study of ripretinib, a broad-spectrum KIT and PDGFRA inhibitor, in patients with KIT-mutated or KIT-amplified melanoma.

Most physician-scientists are intense, motivated and focused, but Keith T. Flaherty, MD, takes it to another level.

The universal cancer vaccine UV1 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in combination with pembrolizumab elicited encouraging initial signs of clinical response with favorable safety and tolerability when used in the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma, meeting the primary end point of an ongoing phase 1 trial.

The topical HDAC inhibitor remetinostat demonstrated favorable tolerability and clinically significant efficacy in reducing disease burden in patients with basal cell carcinoma, according to results from a phase 2 trial.

Prior treatment with PD-1 or MAPK inhibitors resulted in lower objective response rates with adoptive cell transfer of autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in patients with metastatic melanoma vs patients who were naïve to these agents.

The FDA and the European Medicines Agency have accepted applications seeking the approval of tebentafusp for use in the treatment of adult patients with HLA-A*02:01–positive metastatic uveal melanoma.

Distinct subgroups of pediatric melanocytic lesions, which were identified by an integrated clinicopathologic and genomic analysis, were found to have different clinical behaviors, suggesting that this combined diagnostic modality could inform individualized diagnoses and treatments for patients with these rare malignancies.

Pauline Funchain, MD, discusses the rationale for the phase 3 SWOG S1404 trial in high-risk resected melanoma.

Dr. Weber discusses exciting research presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting in melanoma with combination and single-agent checkpoint inhibitors, tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, and more.

The FDA has granted priority review to a supplemental biologics license application for pembrolizumab for the use as an adjuvant treatment in adult and pediatric patients with stage IIB or IIC melanoma following complete resection.

The next steps in research investigating best practices using novel therapies such as tebentafusp as treatment for uveal melanoma.

Drs Richard D. Carvajal and Marlana M. Orloff highlight variables that should be considered when assessing the appropriateness for treating patients with uveal melanoma with tebentafusp.

Advice to help educate patients about symptoms and management of cytokine release syndrome following treatment with tebentafusp for uveal melanoma.