Dr. Long on Including Patients With Melanoma Who Have Brain Mets on Clinical Trials

Georgina V. Long, BSc, PhD, MBBS, FRACP, co-medical director of Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA), chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Translational Research at MIA and Royal North Shore Hospital, University of Sydney, discusses how to efficiently enroll patients with melanoma who have brain metastases in clinical trials.

Often, patients with brain metastases are excluded from clinical trials, says Long. Alternatively, investigators could create separate studies that only include patients with brain metastases. This could be an effective strategy because many patients with melanoma also have brain metastases.

Alternatively, Long suggests designing clinical trials in which patients with brain metastases would be evaluated in a separate cohort in the same protocol as patients without brain metastases. This is likely the most efficient way to develop therapies for this subgroup of patients, says Long.