SKIN CANCERS

Triplet therapy with the combination of anti&ndash;PD-1/PD-L1 therapy, BRAF, and MEK inhibitors have already shown promise for patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF</em>-positive advanced melanoma, and the potential for these combinations are increasing, according to Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD.&nbsp;

Michael A. Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses BRAF and MEK inhibitor combinations studies in melanoma.

In patients with melanoma, the use of intralesional therapies in combination with checkpoint inhibitors has demonstrated to be an improvement to monotherapy and combinations with immunotherapy, according to a presentation by Robert Andtbacka, MD, at the 2017 World Congress of Melanoma.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, deputy director and co-director of the Melanoma Program at the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Medical Center,

Triplet therapy for advanced, <em>BRAF</em> V600-mutant melanoma led to objective responses in 73% of a small group of patients enrolled in a phase I trial, according to updated results reported at the 2017 ESMO Annual Congress in Madrid.

Nearly half of patients with resectable stage IIIB/C BRAF V600-mutant melanoma achieved pathologic complete response with neoadjuvant treatment with dabrafenib and trametinib, according to results of a phase II study presented at the 2017 ESMO Congress in Madrid.

Michael A. Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses how the results of the COMBI-AD study and the CheckMate-238 study will impact the care of patients with melanoma.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, deputy director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, co-director of the Melanoma Program, and head of Experimental Therapeutics at NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses how results of the CheckMate-238 study will impact patients with melanoma.

Paolo A. Ascierto, MD, director at the Unit of Melanoma, Cancer Immunotherapy and Innovative Therapy, National Tumor Institute Fondazione G. Pascale, discusses the initial efficacy findings for the anti-LAG-3 antibody BMS-986016 plus nivolumab in&nbsp;patients with immunotherapy-relapsed/refractory melanoma.

An overall response rate of 61% was induced by adding the IDO inhibitor indoximod to pembrolizumab in patients with advanced melanoma, according to updated results presented at the International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference in Frankfurt/Mainz, Germany.

Based on findings of the randomized CheckMate-236 trial, nivolumab may be a less toxic, better tolerated adjuvant treatment option over&nbsp;ipilimumab for patients with&nbsp;resected stage IIIB/C and IV melanoma, whether or not they have a <em>BRAF</em> mutation.

After a median follow-up of 2.8 years, the 3-year relapse-free survival rate in patients with <em>BRAF</em>-mutant stage III melanoma&nbsp;who were treated with adjuvant dabrafenib and trametinib was 58% compared with 39% for placebo,&nbsp;according to findings&nbsp;from the phase III COMBI-AD study.

Celeste Lebb&eacute;, MD, from the H&ocirc;pital Saint Louis, in Paris, France, discusses avelumab treatment in chemotherapy-naive patients with distant metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma during the 2017 ESMO Annual Congress.

In findings reported at the 2017 ESMO Annual congress in Madrid, a majority of patients with advanced melanoma responded to the combination of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and the investigational IDO1 inhibitor epacadostat.

For patients with <em>BRAF</em>-mutant advanced melanoma, the&nbsp;BRAF inhibitor encorafenib combined with the MEK inhibitor binimetinib demonstrated significant improvements in progression-free survival (PFS) compared with single-agent vemurafenib or encorafenib, according to updated findings from the phase III COLUMBUS trial presented at the 2017 ESMO Congress.

Jason J. Luke, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the combination of epacadostat and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of melanoma during the 2017 ESMO Annual Congress.

Dirk Schadendorf, MD, professor, director, and chair of the clinic for dermatology at the University Hospital Essen in Germany, discusses the combination of targeted therapy and checkpoint blockade for the treatment of melanoma.

Robert Andtbacka, MD, discusses&nbsp;long-term results for T-VEC in melanoma and the remaining challenges with the oncolytic immunotherapy.<br /> &nbsp;

Investigators recently reported 5-year follow-up data from a phase II study of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) plus trametinib (Mekinist) in patients with <em>BRAF</em> V600-mutant unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

A look back at all the FDA news that occurred in July.

Supplemental Biologics License Applications (sBLAs) were sent to and accepted by the FDA for a new dosing schedule for nivolumab (Opdivo) across all of the agent&#39;s indications as a montherapy, according to Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), the manufacturer of the PD-1 inhibitor.&nbsp;

Russell Berman, MD, discusses&nbsp;ongoing surgical advances in the treatment of melanoma.

Avelumab (Bavencio) has been recommended for approval by the European Medicines Agency&#39;s&nbsp;Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP)&nbsp;for adults with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma, according to Pfizer and Merck, the codevelopers of the PD-L1 inhibitor.

Ipilimumab (Yervoy) has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of patients aged &ge;12 years with unresectable or metastatic melanoma, according to Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), the manufacturer of the CTLA-4 inhibitor.

Dirk Schadendorf, MD, professor, director, and chair of the clinic for dermatology at the University Hospital Essen in Germany, discusses the association between PD-L1 and CD8 expression and outcomes in patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF V600E/K</em>-mutant metastatic melanoma who received dabrafenib (Tafinlar) plus trametinib (Mekinist) in the randomized phase III COMBI-v study.

In patients with advanced melanoma enrolled in the phase III CheckMate-238 trial,&nbsp;adjuvant nivolumab extended recurrence-free survival compared with adjuvant ipilimumab.

Psychological intervention can substantially lower fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in survivors, improving their quality of life, anxiety, and cancer-specific distress.

More than one-fourth of patients with advanced <em>BRAF </em>V600-mutant melanoma remained alive at 5 years after treatment with the combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist), long-term follow-up from a randomized trial showed.

Georgina V. Long, BSc, PhD, MBBS,&nbsp;professor of medical melanoma oncology, Melanoma Institute Australia, discusses the activity seen with the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib for the treatment of patients with melanoma brain metastases.

Jennifer Wargo, MD, associate professor of Genomic Medicine and Surgical Oncology, discusses a study that looked at the association of the diversity and composition of the gut microbiome with responses and survival in metastatic melanoma patients on anti-PD-1 therapy.