Melanoma & Skin Cancer

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, discusses the rapidly advancing immunotherapy armamentarium in melanoma.

OncLive sat down with Jason J. Luke, MD, discusses the key areas in the treatment of melanoma discussed at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting included selecting appropriate immunotherapy regimens based on PD-L1 status and improving surgical practices.

Marc Ernstoff, MD, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Cleveland Clinic, discusses results from a study examining the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with advanced BRAF-mutated or BRAF wild-type melanoma.

The European Commission has approved nivolumab as a treatment for patients with advanced melanoma in the first- and later-line setting regardless of BRAF mutation status, making it the first PD-1 inhibitor to gain approval in Europe.

Combination MEK/BRAF inhibition with trametinib and dabrafenib reduced the risk of death by 29% in patients with BRAF-mutant advanced melanoma.

Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, discusses the unique design and goals of the CheckMate-067 trial, and what its results mean for patients with advanced melanoma going forward.

Frontline nivolumab as monotherapy and in combination with ipilimumab more than doubled progression-free survival versus ipilimumab alone in patients with advanced melanoma.

Patients with melanoma who are found to have micrometastases after an initial positive sentinel node biopsy can safely forgo a complete lymph node dissection, thus avoiding the risk of debilitating adverse events from the surgery.

At a recent FDA joint advisory committee meeting, members voted 22-1 to recommend approval of the oncolytic immunotherapy talimogene laherparepvec as a treatment for patients with advanced melanoma.

To better understand the impact of the EORTC 18071 trial, the chances of approval in the adjuvant setting, and the challenges concerning the dosage and toxicity with ipilimumab, OncLive spoke with the study's lead author Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD.

As immunotherapy agents enter into greater clinical use in oncology, clinicians are learning to manage immune-related adverse events related to the mechanism of action of these new drugs.

Immunotherapies and targeted therapies have led to significant strides in the treatment of patients with melanoma. However, determining which therapies are best for which patients and how to treat patients who don't respond or stop responding to these new therapies is still a challenge. For further insight on optimizing the recent treatment breakthroughs in melanoma, OncLive spoke with Alan Bryce, MD, medical director of the Genomic Oncology Clinic at Mayo Clinic.

Kevin B. Kim, MD, medical oncology, California Pacific Medical Center, discusses T-VEC as a treatment option for melanoma.

Omid Hamid, MD, chief, Translational Research and Immunotherapy, director, Melanoma Therapeutics, The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute, discusses the possibility of using biomarkers to select immunotherapy as a treatment option for patients with melanoma.

The FDA has assigned a priority review designation to the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab as a treatment for previously untreated patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

In a combined decision, members of the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee and Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee voted 22-1 to recommend approval of the oncolytic immunotherapy talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) as a treatment for patients with advanced melanoma.

OncLive sat down with F. Stephen Hodi, director, Melanoma Center, director, Center for Immuno-Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, to gain further insight into combination and sequencing strategies for patients with melanoma.

Frontline immunotherapy with nivolumab plus ipilimumab delayed disease progression by 60% compared with ipilimumab alone in patients with advanced melanoma.

F. Stephen Hodi, MD, discusses the results of a trial presented at the 2015 AACR Annual Meeting.