High-Dose Interferon No Benefit in Melanoma With Single Positive SLN

Source: Cancer Network, February 2016

Adjuvant high-dose interferon alfa-2b (HDI) did not improve survival in patients with melanoma and single tumor–positive lymph nodes found using sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, according to the results from the Sunbelt Melanoma Trial. In addition, HDI also did not improve survival for patients positive for disease found using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) compared with observation alone.

“Although, admittedly, the Sunbelt Melanoma Trial was not adequately powered to detect small differences in disease-free survival [DFS] or overall survival [OS] and did not meet its accrual goals, there was no trend toward improvement in OS for patients treated with HDI,” wrote Kelly M. McMasters, MD, PhD, of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

According to background information, the Sunbelt Melanoma Trial, launched in 1997, was designed to investigate several questions related to the use of SLN biopsy and RT-PCR to screen for melanoma, as well as treatment of melanoma with HDI. The design was based in part on results from the 1996 Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) E1684 trial that showed that certain patients with high-risk melanoma had improved DFS and OS when treated with HDI compared with observation.