Timing of pembrolizumab makes a difference in resectable melanoma

Source: Healio, September 2022

Neoadjuvant pembrolizumab extended event-free survival compared with adjuvant-only administration of the anti-PD-1 therapy among patients with resectable melanoma, according to phase 2 study results presented at ESMO Congress.

Background
“Several pilot studies in melanoma have suggested neoadjuvant immunotherapy is safe and feasible [in patients with resectable melanoma],” Sapna P. Patel, MD, director of the uveal melanoma program and program director of melanoma fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, told Healio. “SWOG S1801 was designed as a head-to-head comparison between neoadjuvant immunotherapy and the traditional approach of surgery followed by adjuvant immunotherapy,” she said.

The randomized phase 2 study included 313 patients with histologically confirmed, measurable, clinically detectable and resectable stage IIIB to stage IV cutaneous, acral and mucosal melanomas without brain metastases.
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