Melanoma & Skin Cancer

Omid Hamid, MD, outlines a selection of combinations that are on the horizon in advanced melanoma.

Michael Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the overall survival (OS) results of the CheckMate-069 study, which investigated the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) for the treatment of patients with melanoma.

The combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) showed a 42% improvement in overall survival compared with ipilimumab monotherapy for patients with advanced melanoma in a 2-year assessment of the phase II CheckMate-069 trial.

F. Stephen Hodi, MD, director of the Melanoma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the results of the longest follow-up survival study of patients with advanced melanoma who were treated with single-agent nivolumab (Opdivo).

Single-agent nivolumab demonstrated a robust 5-year overall survival rate of 34% for heavily pretreated patients with metastatic melanoma who had not received prior ipilimumab.

Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC; Imlygic), an oncolytic viral immunotherapy approved for patients with melanoma, is being evaluated in a presurgical setting in a phase II clinical trial that may help set the stage for expanding the toolkit of neoadjuvant options for patients with the malignancy.

Michael B. Atkins, MD, deputy director, Georgetown-Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, professor of Oncology and Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, discusses the adjuvant use of ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with melanoma.

PD-1/PD-L1 should be the backbone of melanoma treatment for many patients, says Jason Luke, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Tara C. Mitchell, MD, discusses what oncologists need to know about using immunotherapies in melanomaâ€â€

Carol Rossier Bradford, MD, discusses the treatment and surgical outlook for head and neck melanoma, as well as other subtypes of the disease.

Michael Davies, MD, discusses the biggest challenges in treating brain metastases, what is known about the connection to the PI3K/AKT pathway, and what his future plans are for research in this area.

The combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab has received a positive recommendation from the CHMP, which suggests that the treatment is likely to gain European approval for patients with advanced melanoma.

Michael Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) for the treatment of patients with melanoma.

After nearly 30 years of research, tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte technology is being investigated as a means of producing personalized immunotherapy for patients with metastatic melanoma in a small clinical trial that may help open the door for broader application in other solid tumor types.

The bounty of choices is good news for patients with melanoma, several key questions have emerged: Should immunotherapy or targeted agents be the first-line choice for metastatic melanoma?

Robert Andtbacka, MD, explains the goals of the retrospective analysis of the OPTiM study, the significance of its results, and the future for T-VEC in melanoma.

Michael Postow, MD, discusses the benefits and challenges of combination regimens versus single-agent regimens, the possibility of targeted agents with immunotherapies, and the management of toxicities with immunotherapies.

Michael Atkins, MD, discusses his views on the potential of immunotherapy versus targeted therapy in melanoma, what research has shown so far, and what could be on horizon for both classes of drugs going forward.

Tara C. Mitchell, MD, assistant professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, discusses atypical responses with immunotherapies in melanoma.

Jason Luke, MD, discusses how molecular subtyping has expanded targeted therapy approaches beyond BRAF inhibition, current trials investigating emerging targeted agents, and what can be expected in this space going forward.

Randal S. Weber, MD, FACS, professor, department chair, John Brooks Williams and Elizabeth Williams Distinguished University Chair in Cancer Medicine, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses future treatment approaches for patients with melanoma.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, discusses recent long-term follow-up data of dabrafenib and trametinib in melanoma that may shed some light on sequencing questions for BRAF-mutated patients.

Omid Hamid, MD, discusses promising agents and combinations that offer hope to patients with melanoma for whom standard checkpoint agents and/or targeted therapies are not an option.

Robert Andtbacka, MD, associate professor, Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, discusses ongoing clinical trials investigating oncolytic immunotherapies as a treatment for melanoma.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, discusses the role that melanoma specialists can play in educating other oncologists, immunotherapy use for BRAF-mutated patients with melanoma, and how the use of chemotherapy may evolve as immunotherapies take the forefront.