Dr. Keith T. Flaherty on 3-Year Follow-up of COMBI-d in Metastatic Melanoma

Keith T. Flaherty, MD, director of Developmental Therapeutics at the Cancer Center of Massachusetts General Hospital discusses a 3-year efficacy and safety update of the COMBI-d study, which looked at of dabrafenib plus trametinib versus dabrafenib monotherapy in patients with unresectable or metastatic BRAF V600E/K-mutant cutaneous melanoma.

In a 3-year analysis, 58% of patients remained on therapy. The 3-year PFS rate with the combination was 22% versus 12% with single-agent dabrafenib. The 3-year OS rate was 44% with dabrafenib plus trametinib compared with 32% with dabrafenib alone.

Eighteen percent of patients received the combination had complete responses, the highest response rate that has been seen with any regimen, targeted or immunotherapy, in metastatic melanoma, says Flaherty.

Overall survival was the most significant, says Flaherty. At 3-year follow-up there was a 44% survival rate with the combination at 3 years. Patients that make it beyond 2 years seem to be very likely to make it to 3 years, he says. These patients will continue to be followed into 4 and 5 years.

An overall survival rate this high is exciting, says Flaherty, as 6 years ago 75% patients with metastatic melanoma lived less than a year.