Melanoma & Skin Cancer

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.

The promise of personalized medicine in cancer will only be met once physicians have both the arsenal of therapeutics they need and a more complete understanding of genomic tumor profiles.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common human malignancy and by far the most prevalent form of skin cancer, accounting for more than 80% of all cases.

Gregory A. Daniels, MD, PhD, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, University of California, San Diego, discusses the findings of the 2007-2012 PROCLAIM national registry

Melanoma care has fortunately undergone a whirlwind of changes over the past several years. Novel immunotherapies are perhaps the most exciting recent development in cancer care because patients can enjoy long-term benefit from these treatments, meaning that they are possibly "cured."

Loren Clarke, MD, vice president of Medical Affairs of Dermatology at Myriad Genetics, discusses melanoma biopsies.

A phase III study comparing trametinib (Mekinist) plus dabrafenib (Tafinlar) with single-agent vemurafenib (Zelboraf) has been stopped early following a positive interim analysis

Immunotherapy agents are delivering impressive results in a broad range of tumor types, reinforcing the excitement in research and investment circles for anticancer strategies that actively harness the immune system

The combination of the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib and the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib significantly improved PFS compared with vemurafenib alone for patients with untreated BRAFV600-mutated advanced melanoma.

Igor Puzanov, MD, medical oncologist, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses the rationale behind a phase Ib study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of T-VEC and ipilimumab in previously untreated, unresected stage IIIB-IV melanoma.

The PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab and the second-generation ALK inhibitor alectinib have each gained their first approvals as treatments for patients in Japan.

Frontline treatment with the anti-PD-1 agent nivolumab significantly extended overall survival when compared with dacarbazine for patients with metastatic or unresectable melanoma.