Melanoma and Skin Cancer

Prof Lex Eggermont talks to ecancer at the 2013 WIN Symposium in Paris about the large progress made in melanoma over the past year. Until recently, there have been very few developments in this area, but drug mutation development and immunotherapy, specifically PD1, have pushed many studies forward. Anti-PD1, a monoclonal anti-body, involves the reactivation of T-cell systems. The most exciting part for this progress is the potential for it to carry over into other tumour types.

Dr Roy Herbst talks to ecancer at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago about immunotherapy and PDL1 inhibition. A phase I trial using a PDL1 inhibitor showed response rate in the mid-20% range in melanoma and kidney cancer. PDL1 is a immune system checkpoint that when exploited activates T cells in the immune system allowing a high response rate in a wide range of cancers.

Prof Drew Pardoll talks to ecancer at the 2013 WIN Symposium in Paris about the recent developments in treating cancer with immunotherapy. Immunotherapy for cancer aims to empower the immune system's antibodies and T-Cells to attack tumours. This occurs through the blockade of regulatory pathways, immune checkpoints, and the reactivation of T-Cells. The most recent breakthrough in this field has been the results in blocking PD-1 with ipilimumab.

Dr Richard D. Carvajal talks to ecancer at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting about a phase II cross-over study for patients with metastatic melanoma of the eye. The study found that selumetinib resulted in tumour shrinkage in half of all patients treated and a duration of disease control more than twice that achieved with temozolomide.

Dr Mario Sznol talks to ecancer at ASCO 2013 about long-term follow-up results from an expanded phase I study examining the effects of nivolumab in advanced melanoma. 107 patients were treated with five different doses of nivolumab. All patients had disease that worsened despite prior standard systemic therapies — 25 percent had three or more prior therapies and 63 percent had two or more. Overall, 33 out of 107 (31 percent) of patients experienced tumor shrinkage of at least 30 percent and responses were seen at all doses. The estimate for survival at two years was 43 percent. The median overall survival across all doses was 16.8 months; 20.3 months for the dose chosen for study in subsequent clinical trials.