2020 Meeting on Cutaneous Malignancies Will Address Next Steps For Immunotherapy

Source: Targeted Oncology, January 2020

Treatment with immunotherapy has become ingrained in the standard of care for treating patients with melanoma, but investigators continue to research new combinations and treatment strategies that can improve patients outcomes. One approach that has generated a great deal of interest and is a significant focus of ongoing trials involves adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy, according to Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD.

Weber, who is the deputy director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health in New York, New York, will lead presentations and discussions on these advances at the 16th Annual International Symposium on Melanoma and Other Cutaneous Malignancies®, hosted by Physicians’ Education Resource®, LLC. Weber is cochair of the educational symposium, which focuses on emerging treatments in skin cancers and updates in clinical practice standards. The event, also cochaired by Omid Hamid, MD, director of the melanoma program at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute in Los Angeles, California, will take place Saturday, February 8, 2020, in New York City’s Times Square.

“You’re going to hear about the latest adjuvant and neoadjuvant data, and you’re going to hear about the latest updates in the use of either single-agent or combination immune therapy, as well as combination targeted therapy. Those are important standard-of-care items that would be of most importance to a practicing physician,” Weber told Targeted Therapies in Oncology. During an interview, he described what oncologists can expect to hear at the symposium.

For example, Weber will moderate a session on the use of adjuvant therapy in melanoma, which will include a Medical Crossfire® on the role of both adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy in melanoma. This debate-style discussion will be conducted jointly with Rodabe N. Amaria, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.