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Among patients with clinically stage I or stage II melanoma, those treated with the immune system–boosting agent CpG-B were less likely to experience recurrence of their disease than those who received placebo, according to results from two randomized, placebo-controlled phase II clinical...
In a phase II histology-independent basket study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hyman et al found that the BRAF V600 kinase inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) exhibited activity in some but not all nonmelanoma cancers with BRAF V600 mutations. Study Details In the study, 122...
People with more than 50 moles have an increased risk of developing melanoma, but those with fewer than 50 moles should still be alert for this disease. In fact, according to new research presented at the American Academy of Dermatology’s 2015 Summer Academy Meeting in New York, those with...
In a single-center retrospective review reported in JAMA Dermatology, Sanlorenzo et al found that cutaneous adverse events in patients receiving the anti–PD-1 agent pembrolizumab (Keytruda), currently approved for treatment of melanoma, may indicate better treatment response. Study Details...
Organ transplant recipients are twice as likely to develop melanoma as people who do not undergo a transplant and three times more likely to die of the skin cancer, suggested new research by a multi-institutional team. The findings, reported by Robbins et al in the Journal of Investigative...
A novel combination therapy appears to be effective in treating patients with melanoma skin metastases, according to new research from the University of California (UC) Davis. Led by Emanual Maverakis, MD, of the UC Davis Department of Dermatology, the research found that interleukin-2...
Risk for melanoma has been found to be increased in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) survivors. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lam et al found that T-cell–activating autoimmune diseases and fludarabine use were associated with an increased melanoma risk among patients with ...
As reported in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report by Guy et al, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that there were an estimated 65,647 new cases of invasive melanoma in the United States in 2011. In the absence of intervention, the annual incidence is...
Scientists have known for years that a mutation in the BRAF gene makes moles start to grow but until now have not understood why they sometimes do not become cancerous. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified a major genetic factor that...
The 6-year follow-up of the phase III ANZMTG 01.02/TROG 02.01 trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Henderson et al, showed that adjuvant lymph-node field radiotherapy in melanoma patients with high risk of lymph-node field recurrence reduced the rate of recurrence but did not improve overall...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sonidegib (Odomzo) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced basal cell carcinoma that has recurred following surgery or radiation therapy or those who are not candidates for surgery or radiation therapy. The approval was based on...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Momtaz et al found that the rate of infusion-related reactions remained acceptably low when ipilimumab (Yervoy) 3 mg/kg was infused over 30 minutes in patients with advanced melanoma. The currently approved dose of...
In an analysis of FDA Adverse Event Reporting System data reported in JAMA Oncology, Jhaveri et al found that the BRAF inhibitors vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and dabrafenib (Tafinlar) were associated with nephrotoxicity. Their findings suggest a need to monitor renal function and electrolyte levels ...
A study published by Bianchi et al in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that genetic test results revealed by noninvasive prenatal testing for fetal chromosomal abnormalities may detect underlying conditions in the mother, including cancer. The study reports on a case...
In the randomized phase II KEYNOTE-002 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ribas et al found that treatment with the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda) prolonged progression-free survival vs investigator-choice chemotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma progressing on...
In a study in Swedish men reported in JAMA, Loeb et al found a statistically significant increase in risk of malignant melanoma in those using oral phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors for erectile dysfunction. However, risk was not significantly elevated in men filling multiple PDE5...
Researchers have a significantly better understanding of the genetic alterations found in cutaneous melanoma as part of a multi-institution, international effort of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The study, published in Cell, refined and revealed new molecular subgroups of patients who could...
A large population-based prospective analysis of the consumption of psoralen-rich citrus products and the risk of malignant melanoma has found that the melanoma risk was 36% higher in people who consumed citrus fruit or juice at least 1.6 times daily compared with those who consumed it less than...
Overall survival results of a phase III COMBI-d trial reported in The Lancet by Long et al showed that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) with the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) resulted in significantly prolonged overall survival vs dabrafenib alone in patients with...
A pooled analysis of four clinical trials of nivolumab (Opdivo) in advanced melanoma, reported by Larkin et al in JAMA Oncology, suggested similar response rates in patients with BRAF V600–mutant and BRAF wild-type disease. Study Details The retrospective analysis included data from adult...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Andtbacka et al found that talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) treatment improved the durable response rate vs granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in patients with unresectable stage IIIB to IV melanoma. T-VEC is...
For patients with melanoma and micrometastases, as shown by positive sentinel lymph node biopsy, complete lymph node dissection did not improve survival, according to results of a randomized study presented at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract LBA9002). “This is the first study which...
A randomized phase III trial among patients with previously untreated melanoma found that initial therapy with nivolumab (Opdivo) alone more than doubled the median progression-free survival compared with ipilimumab (Yervoy) alone (6.9 vs 2.9 months), and the benefit was even greater when the two...
The incidence of melanoma has increased by more than 250% among children, adolescents, and young adults since 1973, according to research to be presented by Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) on June 1 at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 9058) in Chicago. The research has been recognized...
In a preplanned interim analysis of the international open-label STEVIE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Basset-Seguin et al have provided safety data and efficacy outcomes with the use of vismodegib (Erivedge) for 1 year in patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma. STEVIE was designed to...
In the phase II BOLT trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Migden et al found that the hedgehog pathway signaling inhibitor sonidegib produced responses in patients with locally advanced or metastatic basal cell carcinoma at 200-mg and 800-mg dose levels. The lower dose appeared to be associated...
Patients’ preference for how they receive biopsy results “has shifted from face-to-face visit to discussion over the telephone because of a desire for rapid notification,” according to a survey of 301 patients recruited at three different melanoma clinics. A total of 67.1% of the...
In a population-based study reported in JAMA Oncology, Thomas and colleagues found significantly poorer disease-specific survival among melanoma patients with stage ≥ T2b tumors with NRAS or BRAF mutation. Study Details The study included data from 912 U.S. or Australian patients in the...
The Australian ONTRAC trial showed that a form of vitamin B3 called nicotinamide significantly reduced the rates of new skin cancers in people at high risk of the disease. Taken as a twice-daily pill, nicotinamide reduced the incidence of new nonmelanoma skin cancers by 23%. These findings were...
In the phase III KEYNOTE-006 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robert et al found that the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda) increased progression-free and overall survival compared with ipilimumab in patients with advanced melanoma. Study Details In this...
In a phase II study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Postow et al found that dual checkpoint inhibitor therapy with the anti–CTLA-4 antibody ipilimumab (Yervoy) and the anti–PD-1 monoclonal antibody nivolumab (Opdivo) produced greater response rates and prolonged...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for filing and review Bristol-Myers Squibb’s supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of previously untreated patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. The FDA also granted...
Combining the immunostimulatory anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody CP-870,893 with the immune checkpoint inhibitor tremelimumab was found to be safe, with clinical evidence of response in patients with advanced melanoma, according to phase I clinical trial data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, ...
Giving the two immunotherapies ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) simultaneously yielded better treatment responses than ipilimumab alone in patients with advanced melanoma who received no prior treatment, according to phase II clinical trial data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015,...
A first-in-class immunotherapy called IMCgp100 yielded durable responses in patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma and those with advanced ocular melanoma, according to data from a phase I/IIa clinical trial presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, held April 18 to 22 in Philadelphia (Abstract ...
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Luo et al found that microscopic melanoma metastases in sentinel lymph nodes that were not the most radioactive (“hottest”) were still associated with an increased risk of progression and mortality. The study involved data from 475 consecutive...
In the first randomized trial to compare two U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved immune checkpoint inhibitors as first-line therapy for patients with advanced melanoma, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) yielded significantly better treatment outcomes than ipilimumab (Yervoy) for all endpoints...
A large retrospective cohort study of more than 32,000 Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with melanoma has found that one in five patients experience a delay of surgery that is longer than 1.5 months. Those patients undergoing biopsy and surgery by dermatologists had the lowest risk for delay, which ...
In the phase III EORTC 18071 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Eggermont et al found that adjuvant ipilimumab (Yervoy) significantly improved recurrence-free survival vs placebo in patients with completely resected stage III melanoma at high risk of disease recurrence. Ipilimumab was...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maio et al found a 5-year survival rate of 18% among treatment-naive patients receiving ipilimumab (Yervoy) plus dacarbazine in a phase III trial. The findings support other data indicating long-term survival in some patients receiving...
In the phase III CheckMate 037 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Weber et al found that treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) resulted in a significantly greater response rate vs chemotherapy as second- or later-line treatment in patients with advanced melanoma progressing after ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fang et al found that an elevated C-reactive protein level was associated with poorer overall and melanoma-specific survival in patients with melanoma and that sequential increases in C-reactive protein were associated with an increased risk...
In a pooled analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schadendorf et al found 3-year overall survival rates of 26% and 20% in treatment-naive and previously treated patients receiving ipilimumab (Yervoy)-based treatment for unresectable or metastatic melanoma. A survival curve plateau...
In a case report in JAMA Dermatology, Carrera et al described development of multiple wild-type BRAF melanomas and a metastasis with a different BRAF mutation in a patient receiving dabrafenib (Tafinlar) for BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic melanoma. Development of Melanomas As described...
Researchers investigating whether tumor genotype correlates with benefit from immune therapy in melanoma has found that patients whose tumors had NRAS mutations had better response to immunotherapy and better outcomes than patients whose tumors had other genetic subtypes. The results suggest that...
In a new study reported by Shoshan et al in Nature Cell Biology, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center established a link between melanoma and lack of RNA editing, which leads to tumor growth and progression through manipulation of proteins. Study Findings Study lead...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and granted Priority Review for Genentech’s New Drug Application (NDA) for cobimetinib in combination with vemurafenib (Zelboraf) for the treatment of people with BRAF V600 mutation–positive advanced melanoma. The FDA will make a...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Teulings et al found that development of vitiligo in patients receiving immunotherapy for stage III or IV melanoma was a significant predictor of improved progression-free and overall survival. The study...
The molecular determinants of benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment have not been characterized. In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Snyder et al found that benefit of the anti–cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) antibodies ipilimumab (Yervoy) and...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to nivolumab (Opdivo) for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma who no longer respond to other drugs. Nivolumab, a PD-1 inhibitor, is intended for patients who have been previously treated with ipilimumab...