According to this recent study, liver and brain melanoma metastases have a significantly reduced immune infiltrate than lung, subcutaneous and lymph node metastases, which may account for poorer prognosis and reduced immunotherapy response rates in patients with liver or brain metastases.
According to this study, the 5-year analysis of adjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab resulted in a sustained improvement in the long-term recurrence- and distant metastasis-free survival compared with placebo in patients with resected stage III melanoma.
Using a mouse model, this study revealed mechanisms of microbiota-mediated gut-bone crosstalk that are relevant to the immunological restraint of melanoma metastasis and tumor growth in bone. Microbiome modifications induced by antibiotics might have negative clinical consequences in patients with melanoma.
Authors of this recent study found found two loci potentially associated with melanoma-specific survival (MSS). Increased genetic susceptibility to develop cutaneous melanoma is associated with improved MSS in a high UV setting.
Findings of this recent study identify melanoma cell addiction to the mitochondrial protein glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase (GCDH), limiting apoptotic signalling by controlling NRF2 glutarylation. Inhibiting the GCDH pathway could thus represent a therapeutic approach to treat melanoma.
Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world with variable care provided by a diverse range of clinicians. Clinical quality registries aim to identify these variations in care and provide anonymised, benchmarked feedback to clinicians and institutions to improve patient outcomes.
According to this recent study, the increasing ratio of in situ to invasive melanoma incidence over time, together with the high (and increasing) mean age at diagnosis of in situ melanomas, is consistent with more indolent lesions coming to clinical attention than in previous eras.
This study reports the efficacy and safety of T-VEC plus pembrolizumab (T-VEC-pembrolizumab) versus placebo plus pembrolizumab (placebo-pembrolizumab) in patients with advanced melanoma. It concludes that T-VEC-pembrolizumab did not significantly improve progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS) compared with placebo-pembrolizumab.
This recent study investigated the potential of circulating inflammatory proteins for response stratification of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy for advanced melanoma. It concludes that findings are in line with an increasing body of evidence that the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6(IL-6) can influence response to ICI in advanced melanoma, and further support a role of circulating hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and monocyte chemotactic protein 2 (MCP-2) levels as prognostic biomarkers as suggested by previous smaller studies. Inflammatory proteins may serve as predictive biomarkers of ICI response and valuable targets for combination therapy.
Data of this recent study suggest that dual specificity phosphatases proteins are involved in the regulation of cellular plasticity cells and melanoma drug resistance and are potential targets for treatment of MAPKi-resistant melanoma.