Melanoma

As the oncology community adapts to using immunotherapy agents more frequently in cancer treatments, the fear over immune-related adverse events (irAEs) prevents many clinicians from fully trusting immunotherapies.

Helmut Schaider, MD, discusses why drug resistance in melanoma may be due to epigenetic changes and not mutation-induced changes, as well as the role of immunotherapy/targeted therapy combinations in combating resistance.

Dabrafenib combined with trametinib continued to demonstrate durable efficacy for patients with <em>BRAF</em> V600E/K-mutant melanoma.

Michael A. Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses targets beyond PD-1 in melanoma.

The combination of nilotinib and trametinib proved to be synergistic in <em>BRAF/NRAS</em> wild-type melanoma,&nbsp;according to a recent study presented at the 2016 Society for Melanoma Research Congress.

The combination of dabrafenib and trametinib before and after surgery demonstrated a dramatic improvement in relapse-free survival compared with the standard of care for patients with stage IIIb/c or oligometastatic <em>BRAF</em>-mutant melanoma.

Stefani Spranger, PhD, discusses how the presence or absence of CD8-positive T cells can affect treatment approaches for patients with melanoma.

BRAF inhibitor encorafenib combined with the MEK inhibitor binimetinib reduced the risk of progression or death by 46% compared with vemurafenib for patients with <em>BRAF</em>-mutant unresectable melanoma.

Results from a safety, tolerability, and dose escalation phase Ib/II study involving intratumoral SD-101 and pembrolizumab have demonstrated that the combination was well-tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities in early-stage melanoma.

Neoadjuvant therapy with the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab is plausible and effective, but can induce a high level of adverse events calling for further research into better tolerated dosing schemes.

The addition of the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq) to the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib (Cotellic) and the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) induced a high response rate for patients with <em>BRAF</em>-mutant unresectable melanoma.

Jeffery S. Weber, MD, PhD, discusses treatment considerations and options for 3 cases of patients with metastatic melanoma.

Igor Puzanov, MD, professor of oncology, Department of Medicine, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, discusses 2 clinical trials investigating immunotherapy combinations and sequencing in melanoma.

Among the new agents currently being explored in clinical trials, NKTR-214 stands out as a new cytokine therapy approach that could show additive benefit when combined with checkpoint inhibitors.&nbsp;

The addition of the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab to the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib and the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib induced a high response rate for patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF</em>-mutant unresectable melanoma.

Treatment with&nbsp;the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib combined with the MEK inhibitor binimetinib improved median progression-free survival by 7.6 months&nbsp;compared with monotherapy with vemurafenib for patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF</em>-mutant unresectable melanoma.

Omid Hamid, MD, chief, Translational Research and Immunotherapy, director, Melanoma Therapeutics, discusses current and emerging immunotherapeutic strategies in the field of melanoma during an interview at the 34th Annual Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium^TM.

In an interview, Yvonne Saenger, MD, discussed&nbsp;ongoing developments with immunotherapy in&nbsp;melanoma.

Caroline Robert, MD, PhD, head of the Dermatology Unit at the Institut Gustave-Roussy in Paris, discusses overall survival (OS) results of a recent study evaluating dabrafenib and trametinib in melanoma.

James Allison, PhD, discusses exciting advancements in immunotherapy combinations, the potential synergistic effects of radiation with immunotherapies, and considerations that must be made when combining other agents with immunotherapy.

According to an updated survival analysis of the large randomized phase III COMBI-v trial, co-inhibition of BRAF and MEK pathways with dabrafenib and trametinib continued to be superior to sole BRAF inhibition with vemurafenib in patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma at 3 years.

Lidija Kandolf-Sekulovic, MD, PhD, associate professor of Dermatology at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, Serbia, discusses a recent survey that examined the lack of access to&nbsp;lifesaving drugs in European melanoma patients.

James P. Allison, PhD, was recently presented with the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) Distinguished Scientist Award in recognition of his extraordinary scientific accomplishments and contributions to cancer research.

Frontline pembrolizumab was superior to ipilimumab in the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma,&nbsp;a final analysis of the OS data from the KEYNOTE-006 trial showed.

Combined ipilimumab and nivolumab administered pre- and post-surgery reduced the tumor burden in patients with Stage III B/C melanoma, according to first results from the OpACIN trial reported at the ESMO 2016 Annual Congress.&nbsp;

Lidija Kandolf Sekulovic, MD, PhD, associate professor of Dermatology, Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, Serbia, discusses a recently published survey during an interview at the 2016 ESMO Congress. The survey found that several thousand patients with metastatic melanoma in Europe do not have access to new, life-saving agents in this field.

Updated findings from the phase III EORTC 18071 trial show treatment with ipilimumab (Yervoy) reduced the risk of death by 28% versus placebo in patients with high-risk stage III melanoma.&nbsp;

Over one-fourth of patients with metastatic melanoma in Europe do not have access to groundbreaking therapies that could extend their lives, according to a survey presented at the 2016 ESMO Congress.

Part 1 of the phase III COLUMBUS trial has shown positive results for the combination of the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib (LGX818) and the MEK inhibitor binimetinib (MEK162) for patients with <em>BRAF</em>-mutant melanoma.

Yvonne Saenger, MD, director, melanoma immunotherapy, Columbia University Medical Center, discusses the impacts of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in melanoma.