New Targeted Therapy Duo Provides Advantages in BRAF-Mutant Melanoma

Source: OncLive, March 2019

In metastatic melanoma, combinations aimed at the BRAF/MEK kinases have become the standard of care over targeted monotherapy for patients with actionable BRAF mutations. In June 2018, the FDA approved a new dual targeted therapy regimen that combines encorafenib (Braftovi) with binimetinib (Mektovi) for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma with a BRAF V600E or V600K mutation.

In an interview with OncologyLive^®, Keith T. Flaherty, MD, who served as an investigator on the pivotal clinical trial, discussed the distinguishing features of this BRAF/MEK combination as well as some next steps, including the question of whether the regimen eventually could move to the adjuvant setting. Flaherty is director of the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston.