Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy Trial Sees High pCR Rates in Stage III Melanoma
Source: Targeted Oncology, July 2024
A new study suggests a short course of immunotherapy before surgery may significantly improve outcomes in patients with high-risk melanoma.
Neoadjuvant immunotherapy consisting of cobimetinib (Cotellic) and atezolizumab (Tecentriq) with or without vemurafenib (Zelboraf) followed by therapeutic lymph node dissection (TLND) led to robust pathologic complete response (pCR) and major pathologic response (mPR) rates in patients with resected stage III melanoma, according to findings from the phase 2 NeoACTIVATE trial (NCT03554083).
A total of 30 patients were included in the trial; 15 patients with a BRAF mutation comprised cohort A. These patients received 12 weeks of neoadjuvant treatment with vemurafenib, the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib, and the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab followed by TLND and 24 weeks of adjuvant atezolizumab. Ten patients (66.7%; 95% CI, 42.3%-85.8%) in cohort A had a pCR, 0 patients had a near-pCR, 3 had a partial pathologic response (pPR), and 2 had a pathologic nonresponse (pNR).