Melanoma & Skin Cancer

Christian Blank, MD, PhD, Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses some of the early findings from the OpACIN trial testing a combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant setting for patients with stage III melanoma.

Neoadjuvant therapy with the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab is plausible and effective but can induce a high level of adverse events calling for further research into better tolerated dosing schemes.

Ryan Sullivan, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses how best to treat patients with melanoma who have the BRAF mutation.

The addition of the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab to the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib and the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib induced a high response rate for patients with BRAF-mutant unresectable melanoma.

Jason Luke, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the role for immunotherapy and targeted agents in patients with BRAF-positive melanoma.

The European Medicines Agency has accepted and validated a marketing authorization application for avelumab as a treatment for patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma.

Michael A. Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses some of the exciting advancements seen with immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with melanoma.

Yvonne Saenger, MD, director of Melanoma Immunotherapy at Columbia University Medical Center, discusses the importance of developing accurate biomarkers when it comes to administering immunotherapy.

Jeffery S. Weber, MD, PhD, deputy director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, co-director of the Melanoma Program, and head of Experimental Therapeutics at NYU Langone Medical Center, discuses the key takeaways from the phase II CheckMate-064 trial, in which patients were randomized to receive either nivolumab followed by ipilimumab followed by nivolumab maintenance therapy, or ipilimumab followed by nivolumab and maintenance therapy with nivolumab.

Jason Luke, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the various methods involved in immunotherapy diagnostics in the treatment landscape of melanoma.

Co-inhibition of BRAF and MEK pathways with dabrafenib and trametinib continued to be superior to sole BRAF inhibition with vemurafenib in patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma at 3 years.

Jason Luke, MD, discusses some of the exciting research that is happening across the field of immunotherapy in melanoma, including combination strategies, novel agents, and next-generation diagnostics.

A final analysis of the overall survival data from the KEYNOTE-006 trial showed that frontline pembrolizumab was superior to ipilimumab in the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma.

Caroline Robert, MD, PhD, Head of Dermatology, Institute Gustave-Roussy, discusses the next steps following the results of the phase III COMBI-v study in BRAF-mutant melanoma.

Jason Luke, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine, discusses IDO inhibitors in melanoma.

Keith T. Flaherty, MD, director of Developmental Therapeutics at the Cancer Center of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses resistance that develops in patients with BRAF-mutant melanoma.