Dr. Flaherty Discusses the COLUMBUS Trial in Melanoma

Source: OncLive, June 2018

Keith T. Flaherty, MD, director, Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the COLUMBUS trial in patients with BRAF-mutant melanoma.

This trial investigated the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib alone or in combination with the MEK inhibitor binimetinib, versus vemurafenib (Zelboraf). The median progression-free survival (PFS) observed for the combination of encorafenib and binimetinib was just shy of 15 months. The PFS was a few months longer than other combinations have demonstrated to date, says Flaherty. The response rate, however, was similar between encorafenib and binimetinib and other BRAF/MEK combinations.