Melanoma and Other Skin Cancers Research Results and Study Updates

People with desmoplastic melanoma, a rare form of skin cancer, are likely to benefit from treatment with a single immunotherapy drug, pembrolizumab (Keytruda), according to new results from a small clinical trial.

For melanoma that can be treated with surgery, a few doses of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) beforehand looks to be a good choice. In a clinical trial, people who got the presurgical immunotherapy were much less likely to have their cancer come back than those who only received it after surgery.

Male patients with metastatic melanoma don’t live as long as females, and their tumors are more likely to become resistant to commonly used treatments. A new study may help explain why: the androgen receptor.

Regular skin cancer screening leads to many diagnoses of very early-stage melanomas, results from a new study suggest. The results add to a debate about whether screening is fueling an overdiagnosis of melanoma in the United States.

The immunotherapy treatment, which combines the LAG-3 inhibitor relatlimab and PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab, becomes the first new immune checkpoint inhibitor approved in 8 years. Both drugs are given to patients via a single infusion to treat advanced melanoma.

Melanoma cells that travel to the brain produce their own amyloid beta, helping the cells survive and form metastases, a new study in mice shows. The Alzheimer’s-linked proteins appear to tamp down the brain’s immune response to the cancer cells.

NCI researchers have found that a diet rich in fiber may help some people being treated for melanoma respond to immunotherapy treatment by influencing the gut microbiome. The new findings come from an analysis of people with melanoma and mouse models of the disease.

Clinical trial finds that ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) combo is superior to a combination of the targeted therapies dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) as the first treatment for metastatic BRAF-positive melanoma.

Trial results show patients who received the immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) after surgery to remove high-risk stage II melanomas were less likely to have the cancer come back than those who received no treatment after surgery.

People with advanced melanoma treated with two immunotherapy drugs—nivolumab (Opdivo) and a new drug called relatlimab—lived longer without their cancer getting worse than those treated only with nivolumab, results from a large clinical trial show.

While doctors are familiar with the short-term side effects of immune checkpoint inhibitors, less is known about potential long-term side effects. A new study details the chronic side effects of these drugs in people who received them as part of treatment for melanoma.

In a large trial, tebentafusp helped patients with uveal melanoma live longer than patients who received other treatments for the disease. Uveal melanoma is an aggressive cancer of the eye, and many patients do not survive for a year once it has spread.

For patients with cancers that do not respond to immunotherapy drugs, the use of fecal transplants to modify the gut microbiome may help some of these patients respond to the immunotherapy drugs.

Melanoma cells that pass through the lymphatic system before entering the bloodstream are more resistant to cell death and spread more readily than cells that enter the bloodstream directly. The finding could lead to new treatment approaches.

After rising steadily for decades, the number of people in the United States who die each year from the skin cancer melanoma has dramatically dropped in recent years, results from a new study show. Learn what has contributed to the dramatic decline.

Melanoma cells that metastasize to other parts of the body produce high levels of a protein called MCT1, a new study in mice has found. Blocking MCT1 with an investigational drug, AZD3965, led to fewer and smaller metastatic tumors.

Researchers have developed a device that uses lasers and sound waves to scan circulating blood for melanoma cells. In a small study, the device accurately detected and reduced the amount of cancer cells in participants’ blood.

FDA has approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat people with Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and deadly form of skin cancer. The approval covers use of the drug to treat locally advanced or metastatic forms of the disease.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the immunotherapy drug cemiplimab (Libtayo) for an advanced form of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), a common type of skin cancer. It is the first agent to be approved specifically for advanced SCC.

Results from a clinical trial show that the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) halted the growth of or shrank metastatic brain tumors in more than half of participants with melanoma that had spread to the brain.

In a new study, NCI-led researchers developed a gene expression predictor that can indicate whether melanoma in a specific patient is likely to respond to treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of immunotherapy.

A new study has linked age with how well patients with melanoma responded to treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Experiments in mice suggested that the response pattern may be due to an age-related shift in the kinds of immune cells in tumors.

FDA recently approved the targeted-drug combination to treat patients with advanced melanoma and a subset of patients with a rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer whose tumors have a specific mutation in the BRAF gene.

A new study suggests that patients with a rare form of melanoma, called desmoplastic melanoma, may be particularly likely to benefit from treatments known as immune checkpoint inhibitors. An NCI-sponsored clinical trial is already testing one such drug in patients with this cancer.

In an international, double-blind, randomized phase III trial, the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab improved progression-free survival compared with ipilimumab alone for patients with advanced melanoma.

Two recent clinical trials have identified treatments that may delay cancer from returning in some patients with melanoma. Patients in both trials had advanced melanoma that was surgically removed, and each trial tested different forms of post-surgical, or adjuvant, therapy.

Results of an early-phase trial showed that a treatment vaccine personalized to a specific patient’s cancer generated a robust immune response against the cancer and may have helped to prevent it from returning.

A conservative approach to lymph node removal surgery may be best for people with melanoma that has spread from the skin to one or a small number of nearby lymph nodes, new results from a large international clinical trial suggest.

The FDA has approved the first drug ever for the rare skin cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma, and updated data show an improved tumor response rate and that patients’ tumors continued to respond for at least a year.

Researchers identified mutations in relapsed melanoma tumors that block the anticancer effects of the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab.

People previously treated for melanoma can team up with a spouse, family member, or a friend and be trained to find new melanomas, a new study shows.

In a small clinical trial, more than half of the patients with an aggressive form of skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma responded to the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab.

NCI scientists have developed a novel strategy for identifying immune cells circulating in the blood that recognize specific proteins on tumor cells, a finding they believe may have potential implications for immune-based therapies.

The FDA has approved the targeted drug cobimetinib, in combination with another targeted therapy, to treat patients with advanced melanoma whose tumors have specific genetic mutations.

The FDA has approved the first oncolytic virus therapy, talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC). The drug was approved for the treatment of metastatic melanoma that cannot be removed surgically.

The FDA has approved nivolumab in combination with ipilimumab for advanced melanoma and nivolumab alone for advanced nonsquamous lung cancer.

The FDA has approved sonidegib for the treatment of patients with locally advanced basal cell carcinoma.

Study estimates about 1.6 million fewer women and 400,000 fewer men tan indoors, but it’s still a common practice.

In a large clinical trial, the oncolytic virus therapy T-VEC improved the durable response rate and median survival in patients with advanced melanoma.

Results from the KEYNOTE-002 clinical trial show that pembrolizumab improves progression-free survival in patients with ipilimumab-resistant melanoma.

A comprehensive analysis of the genome of cutaneous melanoma has provided new insights into the roles of frequently mutated cancer genes and other genomic alterations that drive the development of this disease.

In two phase III trials, patients with metastatic melanoma whose tumors have specific mutations in the BRAF gene lived longer following treatment with dabrafenib (Tafinlar®), a BRAF inhibitor, plus trametinib (Mekinist®), a MEK inhibitor, than following treatment with a BRAF inhibitor alone.

The majority of Americans are not using sunscreen regularly to protect their skin from damage caused by the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays, according to a new survey.

In a randomized phase III study, pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) improved survival in patients with advanced melanoma compared with Ipilimumab (Yervoy®).

Results from an international phase III trial show that nivolumab (Opdivo®) improves overall survival compared with the chemotherapy drug dacarbazine in patients with metastatic melanoma whose tumors do not have a mutation in the BRAF gene.