BRAF Plus MEK Inhibition Appears Less Well Tolerated Following Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Patients With Melanoma

Source: Cancer Therapy Advisor, March 2019

Results from a retrospective study showed that most patients with advanced BRAF-mutant melanoma receiving combination therapy with a BRAF and a MEK inhibitor following immune checkpoint blockade required dose modifications, and nearly one-third required hospitalization due to an adverse reaction.

BRAK/MEK inhibitor combination therapy and programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor therapy are both options for the first-line treatment of patients with BRAF-mutant advanced melanoma. While no clinical trials have directly compared the efficacy and safety of these 2 treatment approaches in the first-line setting, the latter is often preferred due to reports of long-term disease control in some patients. Although BRAF/MEK inhibitor combination therapy is often used in the second-line setting, prospective clinical trials of this treatment regimen were performed in patients without exposure to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Because recently published case reports and case series have reported severe adverse reactions in patients receiving these therapies in this sequence, this retrospective study of patients receiving BRAF/MEK inhibitor combination therapy following PD-1 inhibition was undertaken.