Researchers reported results of exploratory analyses from the SWOG S1801 trial, which evaluated response to neoadjuvant pembrolizumab among patients with advanced melanoma, according to a press release from SWOG. Data presented by Patel et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023 comes from the evaluation of response to neoadjuvant pembrolizumab using specimens removed from 135 patients with stage III to IV resectable melanoma who underwent surgery. The specimens were then submitted for central review from 78% (n = 105) of the patients who had surgery in the neoadjuvant arm. The researchers found major pathologic response in over 50% of the surgical specimens taken from patients who had been treated with neoadjuvant pembrolizumab. Further, the researchers observed that there were varied distributions of responses to the treatment among separate lesions and areas in the same patient—indicating the existence of different tumor phenotypes within these patients. The rate of recurrence-free survival at 24 months appeared to segregate by pathologic response, and was 89% for patients whose tumors achieved a pathologic complete response. “The pathologic responses seen in [this study] highlight the potential for single-drug immunotherapy to achieve results that we know are important for individual patient outcomes, namely the demonstration of a favorable pathologic response after a few doses of treatment,” concluded senior study author Sapna P. Patel, MD, Associate Professor of Melanoma Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Chair of the SWOG Melanoma Committee.
November 08, 2023