Therapies that improve long-term survival in advanced melanoma

The authors evaluated the factors responsible for long-term survival in advanced melanoma. 

In advanced melanoma (stage III/IV) cancer spreads from the skin to other parts of the body (metastasis). Less than 2% of advanced melanoma patients survive longer than 5 years following treatment. The median (midpoint) survival time for stage IV disease is 6-9 months. Immunotherapy and targeted therapy are promising treatment options used in advanced melanoma. Immunotherapy uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. Targeted therapy attacks specific genes, which are often changed (mutated) in melanoma patients. These therapies have shown improvement in patient survival over a 5 –year period following treatment. There have been cases of advanced melanoma patients who have exceeded the average overall survival (patients who are still alive following melanoma treatment) after receiving these treatments.

To better understand the survival outcome, further assessments of melanoma patients with exceptional survival are required. 

The authors aimed to analyze long-term survival in advanced melanoma patients.

18 advanced melanoma patients were identified in this study. These patients had survived 3 years or more from the date of metastatic disease diagnosis. At the time of analysis 15 patients were alive and 3 patients had died.

12 patients had stage IV and 6 patients had stage III disease. These patients had a predicted high risk of poor survival. Most of the patients underwent a combination of different therapies that included immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and surgery. At the end of this study, 17 patients had survived 5 years or longer. 11 patients had survived 10 years or longer. The median (midpoint) overall survival with metastatic disease was 11 years.  

The authors concluded that the use of multiple therapies, including immunotherapy, could improve long-term survival in metastatic melanoma patients.