Impact of Hematologic Malignancies on Treatment Outcomes for Patients With Advanced Melanoma
Source: Oncology Learning Network, May 2023
A comprehensive analysis found patients with hematologic malignancies and advanced melanoma who were treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors experienced significantly worse melanoma-related outcomes compared to patients without hematologic malignancies.
While patients with hematologic malignancies are at a higher risk for the development of solid tumors such as malignant melanomas, Oliver J Van Not, MD, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands, and colleagues explained “little is known about the influence of [hematologic malignancies] on the response to anti-PD-1 treatment for solid tumors such as advanced melanoma.”
The study analyzed data from the prospective nationwide Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry and included a total of 4638 advanced melanoma patients treated with first-line anti-PD-1 monotherapy (n = 1763), ipilimumab-nivolumab (n = 800), or BRAF(/MEK) inhibitors (n = 2075) between 2015 and 2021. Among these patients, concurrent hematological malignancies were present in 46 patients in the anti-PD1 cohort, 11 in the ipilimumab-nivolumab cohort, and 43 in the BRAF(/MEK)-inhibitor cohort.