Melanoma regression associated with improved prognosis
Source: Healio , December 2023
Key takeaways:
- Patients with regressive melanoma had favorable relapse-free rates (HR = 0.52).
- Regression was associated with favorable progression-free survival during checkpoint inhibitor therapy (HR = 0.43).
Histopathologic regression of melanoma may be associated with favorable outcomes in patients eligible for sentinel lymph node biopsy and those with irresectable melanoma receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, according to a study.
“There has been a long-lasting controversy on the origin and the prognostic impact of histologic regression of primary melanoma,” Nikolaus B. Wagner, MD, of the department of dermatology at Kantonsspital St.Gallen in Switzerland and Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany, and colleagues wrote. “Histologic evidence of regression has long been considered as an indicator for host immune reaction against the tumor processed by infiltrating immune cells.”