Jonathan S. Zager, MD, Reviews Percutaneous Hepatic Perfusion With Melphalan in Ocular Melanoma With Hepatic Metastases
Source: Cancer Network, September 2022
At ASCO 2022, Jonathan S. Zager, MD, spoke about the phase 3 FOCUS trial which analyzed patients with hepatic-dominant ocular melanoma receiving percutaneous hepatic perfusion with melphalan or best alternative care.
Results from the phase 3 FOCUS trial (NCT02678572) that read out at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting showed that patients with hepatic-dominant ocular melanoma who received percutaneous hepatic perfusion (PHP) with melphalan had superior outcomes vs best alternative care (BAC), indicating a promising treatment strategy for this rare indication.
In the trial, patients were randomized 1:1 to PHP or BAC, the latter of which could include transarterial chemoembolization, pembrolizumab (Keytruda), ipilimumab (Yervoy), or dacarbazine. The primary end point of objective response rate was 36.3% (95% CI, 26.44%-47.01%) vs 12.5% (95% CI, 3.51%-28.99%) in those receiving PHP or BAC, respectively, and a median duration of response was 14 months (95% CI, 8.31-17.74) vs not calculable (NC; 95% CI, 6.93-NC). Median PFS with PHP and BAC was 9.03 months (95% CI, 6.34-11.56) vs 3.12 month (95% CI, 2.89-5.65), respectively (P = .0003); corresponding median OS was 19.25 months (95% CI, 16.72-24.35) vs 14.49 (95% CI, 11.10-19.78).