Investigators have found that there may be an association between melanoma subtype, development of cutaneous immune-related adverse events, and therapeutic outcomes in patients with advanced melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to a new study published by Nguyen et al in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. In a retrospective study, investigators analyzed the cases of 747 patients with advanced melanoma who received immune checkpoint inhibitors and reported that 31.6% (n = 236) of them experienced cutaneous immune-related adverse events. However, they emphasized that the patients who experienced these adverse events also had the greatest rates of survival. Those with acral melanoma had a decreased risk of experiencing cutaneous immune-related adverse events (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.41, P = .16) but worse survival outcomes (HR = 2.04, P = .005). Similarly, patients who had mucosal melanoma (HR = 2.30, P < .001) and uveal melanoma (HR = 4.09, P < .001) also presented with a lower adverse event incidence rate and demonstrated poorer survival rates—whereas patients who had nonacral cutaneous melanoma had higher incidence rates of cutaneous immune-related adverse events and greater survival rates. The investigators concluded that the incidence rate of cutaneous immune-related adverse events may be used as a marker of response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy and as a predictor of survival in patients with advanced melanoma.
June 30, 2023