Michael B Atkins, MD, shares insights on the prognosis of patient’s diagnosed with advanced melanoma and discusses the value of BRAF mutation testing.
Case: A 62-Year-Old Female with Stage IV Melanoma
This is a video synopsis/summary of a Case-Based Peer Perspectives episodefeaturing Michael B. Atkins, MD.
In 2011, the median overall survival for patients with stage IV melanoma and M1B disease was 6 to 9 months, with only 10% to 20% alive at 2 years. Now with available therapies for metastatic melanoma, a patient with M1B disease has a 70% to 75% chance of 2-year survival and a greater than 60% 5-year survival, with most 5-year survivors off treatment and likely cured.
This 62-year-old woman represents a typical case. Median age in clinical trials is approximately 60 years. Lung metastases are a common first site, and brain metastases are rare at presentation. This raises the question of optimal treatment for the best chance of long-term survival.
Recommendations for such patients include getting a brain MRI, which this patient had, and testing for BRAF mutation. In contrast to lung cancer, only BRAF mutation analysis is typically needed, rather than more extensive next-generation sequencing that can take 2 to 3 weeks. A simple BRAF test can be done quickly with various methods to help guide treatment decisions about immunotherapy or targeted therapy choices. With rapidly progressive disease, targeted BRAF/MEK inhibitor treatment may help slow tumor growth more quickly than waiting several weeks for sequencing results.
Video synopsis is AI-generated and reviewed by Targeted Oncology® editorial staff.
Similar Efficacy in Melanoma Shown in Indirect Comparison of PD-1/LAG3 vs PD-1/CTLA-4
July 16th 2024During a Case-Based Roundtable® event, Michael A. Postow, MD, discussed an indirect treatment comparison of nivolumab plus relatlimab vs nivolumab plus ipilimumab in patients with advanced melanoma in the first article of a 2-part series.
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