Dr. Postow on the Current Treatment Landscape in Melanoma

Michael A. Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the current treatment landscape in melanoma.

With a wealth of agents in melanoma, researchers are now trying to decide which agents work best by themselves, in sequence, or in different combinations with one another, says Postow.

Researchers are also currently exploring the use of targeted agents, such as trametinib (Mekinist) and cobimetinib (Cotellic), which are both MEK inhibitors. However, some attempts to combine targeted agents with immunotherapies are not always successful. For example, vemurafenib (Zelboraf) was not able to be combined with ipilimumab (Yervoy).

Postow stresses the importance of carefully testing these combination therapies in the context of clinical trials.