Curative or non-curative: immunotherapy for advanced melanoma
Menée à partir de données portant sur 278 patients atteints d'un mélanome de stade avancé, cette étude de cohorte multicentrique analyse les objectifs d'une immunothérapie (à visée curative ou non)
Advanced melanoma was historically considered incurable, however a 52% 10-year melanoma-specific survival rate from seminal immunotherapy trials challenges that conclusion 1. There is no literature exploring clinicians’ discussion of treatment-intent with patients, or whether this represents cure. We performed a multi-center retrospective cohort analysis to examine treatment-intent, using electronic medical records to identify 278 patients with unresectable or stage IV melanoma consented for immunotherapy from 2019-2023. 32 (12%) were consented for curative-intent treatment (CIT). CIT frequency was not significantly influenced by patient or disease characteristics. Patients consented for CIT received significantly higher rates of combination immunotherapy than patients consented for non-curative-intent treatment (NCIT), 76% (16/21) vs 47% (116/246), p 0.022. Among 267 unresectable patients, CIT rates differed significantly between Victoria and South Australia, 14% (20/142) vs 0.8% (1/125), p < .001. Our data confirms variability of documented treatment-intent in advanced melanoma. Further research is needed to understand how this impacts patients.
JNCI Cancer Spectrum , résumé 2025