Preoperative treatment with Bristol Myers combination therapy leads to better outcomes in skin cancer

(Reuters) – Treatment with Bristol Myers Squibb’s immunotherapies Opdivo and Yervoy before surgery for patients whose skin cancer had spread to the lymph nodes did better than those who did not receive the drugs before the procedures to remove the ganglia, according to data from a later stage. trial launched on Sunday.

The study of 423 patients with stage 3 melanoma found that 83.7 percent of patients who received the immunotherapies before surgery were alive without the disease getting worse after 12 months.

The 12-month event-free survival rate in patients who did not receive so-called neoadjuvant treatment but were treated with Opdivo for a year afterward was 57.2 percent, researchers reported at the American Society of Oncology meeting Clinic (ASCO). in Chicago.

About 58 percent of patients in the treatment arm had a pathologic complete response, meaning there was no sign of cancer in the distant lymph nodes and they received no additional treatment.

The rest of the patients either received multiple drugs Opdivo or Novartis, Tafinlar and Mekinist.

“This will likely change our practice,” ASCO President Dr. Lynn Schuchter said in an interview.

“A lot of patients can only be treated with a very limited course, although it has a little more toxicity, but they don’t have to finish a whole year… This is a very good result,” she said.

The study was sponsored by the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Melanoma Institute Australia and funded by Bristol Myers Squibb and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Berkrot)