Major pathologic response to neoadjuvant pembrolizumab in advanced melanoma trial exceeds 50 percent
Source: Eurek Alert!, October 2023
In exploratory analyses of results from the SWOG S1801 trial in patients with stage III-IV resectable melanoma, researchers saw a major pathologic response in more than half of surgical specimens taken from patients who had been treated with neoadjuvant (pre-operative) pembrolizumab.
These and other results of the analyses are presented as a proffered paper (Abstract LBA48) at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023 in Madrid, Spain, on Monday, October 23, by Sapna P. Patel, MD, chair of the SWOG melanoma committee and associate professor of melanoma medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Patel is principal investigator of the S1801 trial.
“The pathologic responses seen in S1801 highlight the potential for single-drug immunotherapy to achieve results that we know are important for individual patient outcomes, namely the demonstration of a favorable pathologic response after a few doses of treatment,” Patel said.