Many melanoma patients could avoid the risk for toxicity from combination therapies, study suggests

Source: News Medical Life Science, April 2023

Data from a national clinical trial shows that a striking 89% of patients with desmoplastic melanoma responded to immunotherapy (pembrolizumab) alone, suggesting that many patients could avoid the risk for toxicity from combination therapies and achieve cancer control with this approach to treatment.

Desmoplastic melanoma is a subset of melanoma skin cancer that is caused by high levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation damage and, therefore, a high number of tumor mutations that all contribute to aggressive disease development and growth.

In this SWOG Cancer Research Network-sponsored study, researchers previously reported results on Cohort A in which recruitment of 30 patients with resectable melanoma treated with three cycles of pembrolizumab (pronounced pem-bro-LIH-zoo-mab, marketed as Keytruda) resulting in a pathologic complete response rate of 55% – meaning there was no evidence of disease after treatment. Here the researchers report the findings for Cohort B, treatment of those with unresectable disease with pembrolizumab. Twenty-seven patients with desmoplastic melanoma that could not be treated with surgery were recruited. Of the participating patients, 89% had a favorable treatment response to single-agent immunotherapy treatment with pembrolizumab and 33% had complete response.
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