Six recent developments in melanoma

Case report study results that Keytruda therapy was associated with eruptive keratoacanthomas in three patients with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma or metastatic melanoma was among recent developments reported on Healio.com/Dermatology.

Other developments included findings that In vivo reflectance confocal microscopy can be used to distinguish between benign melanotic macules and lip melanoma:

Keytruda treatment may be associated with eruptive keratoacanthomas

Keytruda therapy was associated with eruptive keratoacanthomas in three patients with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma or metastatic melanoma, according to study results published in JAMA Dermatology.

Researchers conducted a case report study of three patients with metastatic skin cancer (mean age, 83 years; two men and one woman) who were treated with Keytruda (pembrolizumab, Merck) and developed eruptive keratoacanthomas. Read more

PCP-based skin cancer screening feasible

Primary care-based skin cancer training and screening is feasible, and may improve primary care physician diagnostic accuracy, according to recently published study results in JAMA Dermatology.

Six primary care physicians (PCPs) voluntarily completed a 1.5-hour web-based training for skin cancer detection on May 1, 2015. Five of the PCPs conducted patient screenings during a 14-month period from June 18, 2015, to Aug. 30, 2016. Read more

FDA grants orphan drug designation to pIL-12 for unresectable melanoma

The FDA granted orphan drug designation to tavokinogene telsaplasmid for the treatment of unresectable metastatic melanoma, according to the agent’s manufacturer.

Tavokinogene telsaplasmid (pIL-12, OncoSec) is the active biologic agent in ImmunoPulse IL-12 (OncoSec), an intratumoral anticancer gene therapy that expresses interleukin-12. Read more

Responses appear durable after completion of pembrolizumab therapy for melanoma

CHICAGO — Pembrolizumab demonstrated superior PFS and OS over ipilimumab after treatment ended among patients with advanced melanoma, according to long-term follow-up of the KEYNOTE-006 study presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

The anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) is approved in the United States and internationally for the treatment of advanced melanoma. Previous data from KEYNOTE-006 showed pembrolizumab conferred better long-term benefit over ipilimumab (Yervoy, Bristol-Myers Squibb) in ipilimumab-naive patients. Read more

Reflectance confocal microscopy distinguishes lip melanoma from benign melanotic macules

In vivo reflectance confocal microscopy can be used to distinguish between benign melanotic macules and lip melanoma, according to study results published in JAMA Dermatology.

Researchers conducted a retrospective observational study of 31 patients from two referral centers for melanoma in Australia, who were recruited between June 2007 and January 2015, and separated into two groups. Read more

Pigmented lesion assay improves biopsy specificity in diagnosing melanoma

The use of a noninvasive pigmented lesion assay significantly improved biopsy specifity, which may allow dermatologists to miss fewer melanomas while reducing the number of benign lesions biopsied, according to study results published in JAMA Dermatology.

“The utility study demonstrates that even pigmented lesion experts surgically biopsy about half as often and miss fewer melanomas when adding the pigmented lesion assay to their decision process,” researcher Laura Korb Ferris, MD, PhD, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh, stated in a press release from DermTech. Read more