Melanoma & Skin Cancer

The FDA has approved the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma following treatment with ipilimumab or a BRAF inhibitor.

Metastatic melanoma is associated with a poor prognosis, but recent breakthroughs in tumor biology and immune regulation have led to the development of agents that could change clinical practice.

Steven Rosenberg always knew that he wanted to become a physician scientist, and he quickly advanced to become the chief of surgery at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at just 34 years of age.

Frontline treatment with nivolumab significantly extended OS and PFS compared with dacarbazine in patients with untreated BRAF wild-type advanced melanoma.

The PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab significantly improved PFS by over 43% compared with chemotherapy as a treatment for patients with metastatic melanoma who were refractory to ipilimumab.

The addition of the GM-CSF agent sargramostim to the CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy) prolonged overall survival (OS) and lowered toxicity for patients with unresectable stage III or IV melanoma

Researchers analyzed artwork, advertisements and leisure time activities to estimate historic changes in UV exposure

The FDA has expanded the approval of Lymphoseek (technetium Tc 99m tilmanocept) injection to include lymphatic mapping in solid tumors and sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection for breast cancer and melanoma

One of the most striking changes in our understanding of the fundamental biology of malignant disease has been the observation that "driver" molecular abnormalities may frequently cross major histologic barriers.

Patients with unresectable melanoma had a significant improvement in the odds of survival when treated in first line with a combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors, as opposed to anti-BRAF monotherapy

Inhibiting BRAF and MEK at the same time improves progression-free survival (PFS) more so than BRAF inhibition alone in patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive metastatic melanoma, according to results of a phase III placebo-controlled trial.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, discusses the results of a phase III study of nivolumab compared with investigator's choice chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma after prior anti-CTLA-4 therapy.

Treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated superior objective response rates (ORR) and longer durations of response compared with chemotherapy in a phase III trial of patients with previously treated advanced metastatic melanoma, reported Jeffrey Weber, MD, at the 2014 ESMO Congress.

Harriet Kluger, MD, associate professor of medicine, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the results from a phase I trial of nivolumab and ipilimumab for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma.

The FDA has assigned a priority review designation to the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) as a treatment for pretreated patients with advanced melanoma.

Approximately 85% of patients with newly diagnosed melanoma present with what appears to be clinically localized disease, making them candidates for standard treatment with surgery.

To gain further insight into the approval of pembrolizumab, OncLive interviewed John Glaspy, MD, MPH, from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, where research into the novel drug was conducted.

It is estimated that in 2014 more than 76,000 people will be diagnosed with melanoma and approximately 9700 people will die from the malignancy.

Robert H. I. Andtbacka, MD, CM, from Intermountain Healthcare and Huntsman Cancer Institute, discusses the safety and efficacy of T-VEC in combination with ipilimumab in patients with previously untreated, unresected stage IIIB-IV melanoma.

BMS has filed a lawsuit over Merck's newly approved immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, contending that the much-heralded PD-1 inhibitor will infringe upon patents that Bristol-Myers holds on the groundbreaking technology.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a treatment for patients with advanced or unresectable melanoma who are no longer responding to other drugs, making it the first PD-1 inhibitor to gain approval in the United States.