ASCO 2018 Highlights: Melanoma Studies

Source: Cancer Network, June 2018

Cancer Network: Are there one or two key presentations of clinical trial data at the meeting that you feel could potentially be practice-changing?

Dr. Sullivan: This is another year when the practice-changing trial results are not part of the oral abstract and poster sessions, and may or may not find their way into the poster sessions. The main issue with melanoma right now is sorting out the best way to treat patients upfront, and there are ongoing trials addressing that. Some abstracts at the ASCO meeting are presenting economic analyses of sequencing therapies and comparing different treatment approaches head-to-head.

The trials that will truly be practice-changing are the ones looking at how to treat patients after upfront immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, because well over 50% of our patients are progressing on those treatments and we need to have better therapies for these patients. Some of these trials are early-stage, some in melanoma but some are single-agent [studies] or combinations of novel immune-targeting agents plus, usually, an anti-PD1 antibody. And ultimately, some of those strategies will be moved forward if the preliminary data hold up.