Expert Highlights Key Studies Revolutionizing the Melanoma Treatment Landscape

Source: Targeted Oncology, October 2019

A number of abstracts were presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting demonstrating a therapeutic revolution for the treatment of patients with melanoma. Recently at the Best of ASCO Seattle meeting, Shailender Bhatia, MD, presented the top 5 abstracts from ASCO in the field of melanoma.

Bhatia noted the significance of combination therapy across a number of subsets of melanoma, including patients with brain metastases. Historically, patients with brain metastases from melanoma had a median survival of around 5 months, but recent data show that new agents and regimens can improve their survival. The phase II CheckMate 204 trial, in particular, demonstrated durable responses in these patients when treated with the combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) plus nivolumab (Opdivo). At 1 year, around 60% of patients were alive and free of disease progression.

In a long-term analysis of the phase III EORTC 18071 trial, single-agent ipilimumab maintained its initial benefits by reducing the risk of recurrence long-term. These long-term follow-up data demonstrated that immunotherapy can improve survival in patients with advanced melanoma.