Pembrolizumab May Cure Metastatic Melanoma in A Subset of Patients

Source: Cancer Therapy Advisor, January 2018

Pembrolizumab leads to a durable complete response (CR) with low rates of relapse — even 2 years after discontinuation — and may cure a subset of patients with metastatic melanoma, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Patients with metastatic melanoma have among the worst prognoses of patients with cancer, but response rates and outcomes have improved markedly with the introduction of PD-L1 inhibitors, including pembrolizumab. Predictors for treatment success have not, however, yet been explored.
For this analysis, researchers evaluated the outcomes of 105 patients enrolled in KEYNOTE-001 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01295827) who had a CR with pembrolizumab after a median follow-up of 43 months. Patients were eligible to discontinue pembrolizumab if treatment lasted for 6 months or longer and for at least 2 treatments beyond confirmed CR. Tumor response was assessed every 12 weeks by RECIST criteria and investigator review.