A new study conducted by the researchers of Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA) has revealed that a new drug treatment before surgery is effective in preventing the spread of melanoma, a type of skin cancer.
The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, looked at the findings of six clinical trials where drug therapy was given prior to the surgery, called neoadjuvant therapy.
The researchers found that a short course of pre-operative targeted immunotherapy was effective in Stage III melanoma patients.
Nearly 75% of patients responded well to dual immunotherapy given before surgery, of them, only 3% saw their tumors return after surgery; this suggests that 97% will likely be cured.
Senior author Prof. Georgina Long AO, Co-Medical Director of MIA, said, “The neoadjuvant approach is a new way of dealing with melanoma and is a game-changer for stage III patients with bulky disease that has spread to their lymph nodes.”
“We have flipped the ‘surgery-then-drugs’ rationale on its head. By using our arsenal of ground-breaking new treatments before surgical removal of the tumors,” she added, “this approach is proving effective in stopping melanoma in its tracks and preventing its recurrence and spread to distant organs.”
The study findings suggest that immunotherapy may work more effectively when given before surgery because the presence of the tumor provoking an immune response.
The study’s first author Prof. Alex Menzies said, “Although neoadjuvant therapy for Stage III patients is not currently an approved standard of treatment, we anticipate that this will ultimately change following the very promising clinical trial results.”
“This study shows that giving drug therapy before surgery reduces the risk of recurrence even further, preventing spread to vital organs like the brain and liver and saving more lives,” he added. “We can also now tell whether the drugs are working for an individual patient, so we can direct subsequent treatment and follow-up accordingly.”
Prof. Long explained, “This early marker of a patient’s response to treatment should be considered a new benchmark for rapid drug development in melanoma. It is also a great platform to help fast track laboratory research to understand why some patients do not respond to treatment.”
The current study is probably the first large analysis of immunotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting in any cancer. And the results have paved the way for the use of immunotherapy before surgery in many other types of cancer.
Australia has a high prevalence of melanoma, with at least one person diagnosed every 30 minutes.
Prof. Richard Scolyer, Co-Medical Director of MIA, said, “Treatment for advanced melanoma patients, where their disease has metastasized and spread to distant organs, has come a long way in the last decade.”
“It is exciting that patients with the earlier-stage disease are now also benefiting from research breakthroughs,” he added. “If we can prevent these patients from progressing to Stage IV or metastatic disease, then we will be even closer to achieving our goal of zero deaths from melanoma.” The article was published yesterday in Medical Xpress.
