Skin Cancer

The CD40 agonist sotigalimab in combination with pembrolizumab yielded promising outcomes in patients with unresectable stage III or IV metastatic melanoma.

An improved progression-free survival benefit was observed in patients with stage III unresectable or stage IV melanoma who received nivolumab plus ipilimumab.

Oncology Nursing News® speaks with Hussein A. Tawbi, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the phase 2/3 RELATIVITY-046 trial, about the significance of the relatlimab/nivolumab approval for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

The doublet regimen of relatlimab/nivolumab has been approved for adults with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

Manufacturers will unblind trials evaluating bempegaldesleukin/nivolumab in melanoma in light of the final progression-free survival and overall response rates analyses.

Weekly phone calls from RNs helped reduce the number of severe adverse events experienced by patients receiving ipilimumab for metastatic melanoma.

Oncology Nursing News® meets with the lead investigator behind the phase 3 IMCgp100-202 trial to better understand the significance of tebentafusp’s approval and to determine what oncology nurses need to know about the new agent.

Tebentafusp is now the first FDA-approved therapy to treat unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma.

New data support increased fiber consumption and decreased probiotic use among patients receiving immunotherapy.

A novel regimen of relatlimab, an LAG-3 inhibitor, plus nivolumab doubled progression-free survival in patients with untreated, advanced melanoma.

Patients with various solid tumor types experienced improved antitumor immunity after adhering to a diet with severe caloric restrictions.

Pembrolizumab has been approved for the adjuvant treatment of adults and pediatric patients with stage IIB or IIC melanoma who have underwent complete resection.

Patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors for renal cell carcinoma or melanoma responded well to the COVID-19 vaccine.

After 6 months of additional follow-up, patients with resected high-risk stage II melanoma continued to experience improved relapse-free survival following treatment with adjuvant pembrolizumab.

Patients with metastatic melanoma treated with the IL-2 agonist experienced a 78.5% change in target lesion size.

The FDA has determined that more data are necessary to certify the clinical benefit of retifanlimab for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved pembrolizumab for the treatment of patients with a locally advanced form of skin cancer.

While merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) tends to have poor prognoses and limited treatment options, promising response rates with checkpoint inhibitors may pave the way for better treatment for the rare skin cancer.

Nivolumab with or without ipilimumab improved survival over ipilimumab alone in patients with previously untreated advanced melanoma.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes show great promise in the metastatic melanoma space, but questions remain.

Chronic immune-related adverse effects arising from adjuvant anti–PD-1 therapy in patients with high-risk melanoma are more common than previously recognized, and often persisted with longer follow-up.

Lifileucel produced durable responses in advanced melanoma that was previously treated an an immunotherapy agent.

The FDA approved cemiplimab-rwlc as the first immunotherapy for use in patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma that has previously been treated with a hedgehog pathway inhibitor (HHI) or for whom a HHI is not appropriate.

The FDA has granted toripalimab a fast track designation for use in the frontline treatment of patients with mucosal melanoma, according to an announcement from Junshi Biosciences, the drug developer.

With the identification of actionable alterations, precision medicine continues to lead the way in all areas of oncology, but especially in melanoma, according to Jason J. Luke, MD, FACP, who added that, in order to successfully apply personalized therapy, it’s critical to be fluent in the differences between biomarkers.

Tebentafusp (IMCgp100) showed superiority in overall survival (OS) compared with investigator’s choice of therapy in patients with previously untreated metastatic uveal melanoma, according to results of a preplanned interim analysis of the phase 3 IMCgp100-202 trial (NCT03070392).

Cemiplimab (Libtayo) demonstrated clinically meaningful antitumor activity, including durable responses, and acceptable safety in patients with metastatic basal cell carcinoma (mBCC) after progression on or intolerance to hedgehog inhibitors.

In an effort to further improve outcomes without sacrificing tolerability, the combination of cabozantinib (Cabometyx) with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is being evaluated in patients with advanced melanoma in a phase 1b/2 study (NCT03957551), according to a virtual presentation during the 2020 SITC Annual Meeting.

Subgroup analyses from the phase III CheckMate-067 trial identified potential biomarkers in patients who achieved a complete response (CR) with the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) but later progressed, according to Georgina V. Long, BSc, PhD, MBBS, FRACP.1 Now, investigators are working to answer more questions about this group of patients.

There is still a great deal to learn about the optimal use of BRAF-targeted therapy, as well as immunotherapy, in the adjuvant setting for patients with melanoma.