ASCO 2016 | OS rates and prognostic categories for BRAF-mutated melanoma when treated with combination therapy

Grant McArthur, MBBS, BMedSci, PhD, FRACP from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia discusses the results of the Phase III coBRIM trial (NCT01689519), which focuses on therapies for BRAF-mutated melanoma (MM). The clinical trial aimed to test the hypothesis that combination of vemurafenib (V) and cobimetinib (C) was superior to monotherapy with vemurafenib plus placebo. Findings showed median overall survival (OS) was 22 months in the group with combination therapy and 17 months in the group treated with monotherapy. According to Prof. McArthur, subsets are of particular interest. For example, BRAF-mutated melanoma is considered to be in different prognostic categories related to the serum lactate dehydrogenase, performance status, and presence of visceral metastases, in particular liver metastases. Subsets with high OS include those with low lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), with a median OS of 20 months. However, patients with high LDH, combined with visceral metastases only have a median OS of 10 months, even with combination therapy. Prof. McArthur concludes by discussing the use of immunotherapy and targeted therapy for different subsets of patients. Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.