Desmoplastic melanoma responds to PD-1 blockade immunotherapy

Source: Medical Xpress, May 2022

Tumors from desmoplastic melanoma, a rare cancer most commonly found on the head or neck, can often be shrunk significantly before surgery by an immunotherapy known as PD-1 blockade, a result that may reduce the need for disfiguring surgery and radiation. These are the findings of a small clinical trial in this disease by researchers from SWOG Cancer Research Network, a cancer clinical trials group funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The trial, known as S1512, was led by Kari Kendra, MD, Ph.D., a SWOG investigator and medical oncologist with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC—James). Dr. Kendra will present these results at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022 annual meeting in Chicago on June 5 (abstract 9502).

Although the trial did not directly test whether successful immunotherapy resulted in less extensive surgery and radiation, researchers anticipate such an outcome.

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