Melanoma & Skin Cancer

Kevin B. Kim, MD, medical oncology, California Pacific Medical Center, discusses how treatment outcomes in melanoma have evolved over the last few years.

The FDA has accepted a supplemental Biologics License Application for ipilimumab for the adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III melanoma at high risk of recurrence following complete resection.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Novartis have announced that a multi-billion-dollar, 3-pronged deal to exchange and share various operations has been completed.

In an analysis of phase III data, the 5-year survival rate with ipilimumab plus dacarbazine in patients with advanced melanoma was 18.2% versus 8.8% with dacarbazine alone.

In an interview with OncLive, Suzanne L. Topalian, MD, director of the Melanoma Program at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, discussed the rapid advance of nivolumab and potential next-steps.

The FDA has granted a priority review to the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib for use in combination with the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) to treat patients with BRAF V600–positive advanced melanoma.

The FDA has scheduled an advisory hearing to discuss the biologics license application for the immunotherapy talimogene laherparepvec as a treatment for patients with metastatic melanoma.

The Myriad myPath Melanoma molecular diagnostic test was effective in helping practitioners differentiate between benign and malignant melanocytic lesions, according to results from a prospective study.

Suzanne Topalian, MD, professor of surgery and oncology, John Hopkins Medicine, and director of the melanoma program, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, compares biomarker detection for anti- PD-1 therapies like nivolumab to anti-CTLA-4 therapies like ipilimumab for the treatment of melanoma.

Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD, a senior member at the Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the EORTC 18701 study, which compared ipilimumab with placebo for patients with stage III node-positive melanoma.

Harriet Kluger, MD, associate professor of medicine, Yale Cancer Center, talks about the toxicity of nivolumab and ipilimumab for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma.

An increased understanding of tumor immunology has led to seven new melanoma drug approvals since 2011, including the recent approvals of the PD-1 inhibitors nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda).