Melanoma & Skin Cancer

Russell Berman, MD, discusses ongoing surgical advances in the treatment of melanoma.

The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended approval of avelumab (Bavencio) for adults with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma, according to Pfizer and Merck, the codevelopers of the PD-L1 inhibitor.

Douglas Kondziolka, MD, provides insight on some of the technical advancements in treating brain metastases in patients with melanoma.

A novel combination therapy aimed at 2 processes implicated in NRAS-mutant melanoma has displayed promising activity in preclinical investigations, signaling an avenue of exploration for a new therapeutic approach for patients who currently have few options.

Jennifer A. Stein, MD, PhD, discusses the skin-related adverse events for patients on treatment for melanoma, as well as the importance of identifying new primary melanomas.

The antibody-drug conjugate glembatumumab vedotin demonstrated an 11% overall response rate in patients with refractory advanced melanoma who had received prior treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor and duration of response.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, discusses both pivotal studies for dabrafenib/trametinib in patients with melanoma and any unanswered questions that remain after the extensive 5-year follow-up.

The addition of T-VEC (T-VEC; Imlygic), a herpes simplex virus 1-based oncolytic virus, to CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy) improves the objective response rate in patients with unresected stage IIIb to IV melanoma.

Bastian Schilling, MD, University of Wuerzburg, discusses different types of ocular melanoma and the importance of distinguishing this subtype.

Adil Daud, MD, a clinical professor, Department of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses potential combinations of immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with melanoma.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) provides a long-term survival benefit in both ipilimumab-naïve and ipilimumab-treated patients with advanced melanoma.

Adjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) extended recurrence-free survival compared with adjuvant ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with advanced melanoma enrolled in the phase III CheckMate-238 trial.