Dr. Kudchadkar on the Durability of Immunotherapy in Non-Melanoma Skin Cancers

Ragini Kudchadkar, MD, chair of the Clinical and Translational Review Committee at Winship Cancer Institute, as well as an associate professor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine, discusses the durability of immunotherapy in non-melanoma skin cancers.

For Merkel cell carcinoma, there has been durability of responses observed with immunotherapy agents. For example, a study looking at pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in this patient population showed that the vast majority of patients who responded to the PD-1 inhibitor continued to experience response, Kudchadkar explains.

In basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, however, the durability of immunotherapy agents has not yet been identified. Investigators remain optimistic based on durability with immunotherapy seen in other skin cancers, though longer follow-up is needed to say for certain, Kudchadkar concluded.