Melanoma & Skin Cancer

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).

Surgical intervention is a Machiavellian endeavor: the ends justify the means. This obligates the clinician to minimize the risk of a procedure to justify the gains obtained from an intervention.

Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses remaining questions regarding immunotherapies for the treatment of melanoma.

To gain insight on the integration of these agents and other immunotherapies into clinical practice, OncLive interviewed Jeffery S. Weber, MD, PhD, a senior member at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.

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.