Machine learning-based methods predict early-stage melanoma recurrence
Source: Helio, January 2023
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School have developed machine learning-based methods to predict which patients with early-stage melanoma have the highest risk for disease recurrence.
The methods could help reveal those who may benefit from greater surveillance or adjuvant immunotherapy, the investigators wrote in a study published in npj Precision Oncology.
“In 2021, immune checkpoint inhibitors that historically have been used to treat more advanced melanomas received approval for the management of stage IIB and IIC disease,” Yevgeniy R. Semenov, MD, MA, assistant professor and principal investigator of the Dermatology Clinical Informatics Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, told Healio. “Clearly, not everyone who has early-stage disease will experience a recurrence. If we look at historical data, only about 20% to 30% of even the stage IIB and IIC groupings would experience recurrence, but that would mean giving these immunotherapies to 100% of patients in a situation where maybe only 20% to 30% would benefit.”