Presurgical Targeted Therapy, Immunotherapy Show Responses in Melanoma
Source: Cure Today, July 2024
Researchers have found that among patients with certain melanoma, presurgical targeted therapy and immunotherapy can result in better pathologic response.
Presurgical treatment with targeted therapy and immunotherapy resulted in notable responses among some patients with high-risk resectable (removable by surgery) stage 3 melanoma, researchers have found.
Researchers for the phase 2 NeoACTIVATE trial, who published their findings in Nature Communications, reported that 15 patients each were treated with neoadjuvant (presurgical) Zelboraf (vemurafenib), Cotellic (cobimetinib) and Tecentriq (atezolizumab) if their disease was BRAF-mutated. Patients whose disease was BRAF-wild-type (meaning there is no BRAF mutation) were treated with Cotellic and Tecentriq. The therapies were followed by therapeutic lymph node dissection (surgical removal of the lymph nodes) and 24 weeks of adjuvant (postsurgical) Tecentriq.