ASCO 2022: A Beneficial Blend of the Positive and the Negative for Patients With Melanoma
Source: ASCO, July 2022
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, recounts the conclusions of several neoadjuvant studies presented at ASCO 2022, all of which in their outcomes offer varying degrees of promise for new therapeutic options in the treatment of melanoma. The latest indications from the PRADO trial, while not fulfilling its earlier results regarding the combination of ipilimumab-nivolumab, still provide useful data on the value of pathologic response as a measure of therapeutic efficacy. Next, the NeoTrio study evaluating pembrolizumab alone against its combination with dabrafenib and trametinib as triplet therapy revealed no substantial advantage of the latter over the former, which retains its impressive relapse-free survival rate. Dr Weber then reviews a SWOG study in which an impressive neoadjuvant performance of a PD-1 antibody among a small number of patients with Merkel cell carcinoma posits the clinical potential of the same neoadjuvant extension to other cutaneous cancers.
Finally, turning from the neoadjuvant to the first-line setting, Dr Weber discusses a phase 2, single-group study that arrayed a triplet therapy of VEGFR-2 inhibitor, PD-1 antibody, and temozolomide against acral lentiginous melanoma, producing a notable response rate and opening the door to continued studies in combination treatments for this difficult-to-treat subtype.