Shorter Anti-PD1 Therapy Duration Not Associated With Worse Survival in Melanoma
Source: Dermatology Advisor, April 2025
Among patients with resected metastatic melanoma stages III and IV, a shorter treatment duration with adjuvant anti-PD1 antibodies is not associated with worse outcomes, according to study results published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.
To examine the association between duration of immunotherapy and disease outcomes, investigators identified patients with cutaneous melanoma stage III and IV, as measured by the eighth edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system, who had complete resection and received adjuvant treatment with the anti-PD1 inhibitors nivolumab or pembrolizumab. All patients received treatment from September 2015 to January 2022 and were part of the ADOREG of the German Dermatologic Cooperative Oncology Group skin cancer registry. Eligible patients had terminated adjuvant treatment.
The analysis included 620 patients from 49 centers. All patients were stratified into 1 of 4 cohorts based on their disease characteristics. Cohort A1 (n = 229) included those who completed 52 ± 4 weeks of adjuvant anti-PD1 treatment. Patients with disease recurrence during adjuvant treatment (n = 145) were considered as intended standard treatment duration and included in cohort A2 for additional analysis. Cohort B patients (n = 214) terminated adjuvant anti-PD1 therapy prematurely (defined as <48 weeks) for reasons other than disease progression, and cohort C patients (n = 32) continued adjuvant treatment for longer than 56 weeks.