Neoadjuvant immunotherapy ‘the new standard’ for resectable stage III melanoma

Source: Healio, June 2024

CHICAGO — Individuals with resectable stage III melanoma derived significant EFS benefits with neoadjuvant immunotherapy compared with standard treatment, results from a randomized phase 3 trial presented at ASCO Annual Meeting showed.

Study participants who received neoadjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo, Bristol Myers Squibb) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy, Bristol Myers Squibb) prior to therapeutic lymph node dissection experienced 68% fewer events —defined as progression to nonresectability or treatment- or melanoma-related death — compared with those who received adjuvant therapy following dissection.

“Together with SWOG S1801, NADINA defines neoadjuvant immunotherapy as the new standard of care for macroscopic stage III melanoma, which means that all trials currently ongoing need to be amended for an adjuvant comparator to neoadjuvant comparator,” Christian U. Blank, MD, PhD, professor of internal medicine at Netherlands Cancer Institute and founding and faculty member of the International Neoadjuvant Melanoma Consortium, said during his presentation.
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