Melanoma & Skin Cancer

Christian U. Blank, MD, PhD, discusses the OpACIN and OPACIN-neo trials examining ipilimumab plus nivolumab in stage III macroscopic melanoma. 

When is it appropriate to accept a specific strategy, either formally or informally, as a standard-of-care option in managing the treatment of patients with cancer in a particular clinical setting?

Georgina Long, BSc, PhD, MBBS, FRACP, discusses the rationale for the phase 3 COMBI-i trial in BRAF V600­–mutant melanoma.

Mattia Garutti, MD, discusses the advantages of neoadjuvant therapy, predictive biomarkers under exploration, and future neoadjuvant clinical trial development.

Omid Hamid, MD, discusses the utility of tumor mutational burden as a biomarker for response to immunotherapy in patients with melanoma.

Spartalizumab in combination with dabrafenib and trametinib failed to meet the primary end point of investigator-assessed progression-free survival in treatment-naïve patients with unresectable or metastatic BRAF V600 mutation–positive cutaneous melanoma.

Douglas B. Johnson, MD, MSCI, discusses the limitations of biomarkers in melanoma.

Anna C. Pavlick, DO, discusses the longer follow-up of the phase 2 EMPOWER-CSCC-1 study with cemiplimab in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Jennifer L. Atlas, MD, discusses the promise of cemiplimab in the treatment of patients with locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

A panel of experts discuss some of the encouraging data on emerging modalities in melanoma presented during the 2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program and share how they might apply that information to clinical practice.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, discusses emerging therapies in melanoma.

Jennifer L. Atlas, MD, discusses the ​current cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma treatment paradigm.

Anna C. Pavlick, DO, discusses common and uncommon adverse effects with cemiplimab in patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Mohammed M. Milhem, MBBS, discusses the design of an open-label, multicenter phase 1b/2 dose escalation/expansion study with AST-008 in combination with a PD-1 inhibitor, such as pembrolizumab or cemiplimab, in Merkel cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Georgina V. Long, BSc, PhD, MBBS, FRACP, discusses the safety profile of the combination of spartalizumab, dabrafenib, and trametinib, the clinical implications of the biomarker data observed from this trial, and other emerging combinations on the horizon.

Christian U. Blank, MD, PhD, discusses ongoing research efforts to personalize neoadjuvant therapy in stage III macroscopic melanoma. 

Mohammed M. Milhem, MBBS, discusses the promise of the AST-008 combination in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma and CSCC who do not achieve a response with PD-1 inhibitors alone.

Christian U. Blank, MD, PhD, discusses the promise of neoadjuvant ipilimumab/nivolumab and research efforts examining interferon-gamma signature and tumor mutational burden as potential predictors of response.

Nikhil Khushalani, MD, discusses cemiplimab-rwlc, which has become the preferred agent for the frontline treatment of patients with metastatic or locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Grace Cherry, RN, ​MSN, NP, discusses ​recent advances in melanoma. 

Jennifer L. Atlas, MD, discusses the rationale for using cemiplimab-rwlc as a first intervention for patients with locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Anna C. Pavlick, DO, discusses the benefit of cemiplimab for patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC), the impact of these longer follow-up data, rare, but notable, toxicities that can arise with the agent, and ongoing research efforts aimed at increasing responses to immunotherapy in the CSCC space.

Christian U. Blank, MD, PhD, discusses the future of baseline biomarkers in macroscopic stage 3 melanoma.

The FDA has approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with cobimetinib (Cotellic) and vemurafenib (Zelboraf) in the treatment of patients with BRAF V600 mutation–positive advanced melanoma.

As new data emerge in the melanoma treatment paradigm, new questions have come to light regarding neoadjuvant/adjuvant strategies, reduced dosing for immunotherapy combinations, and approaches following progression on, or resistance to, PD-1 inhibition.