Dr. Amaria on Dabrafenib Plus Trametinib in Melanoma

Rodabe N. Amaria, MD, assistant professor Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the results of a recent trial testing neoadjuvant and adjuvant dabrafenib plus trametinib versus standard of care in high-risk resectable BRAF-mutant melanoma.

The trial originally was meant to have 84 patients enrolled, but due to the drastic difference in outcomes between the two arms, the trial was closed after only 21 patients were enrolled. The patients who received the combination performed much better, with fewer relapses, than the patients who received standard of care.

While the low enrollment limited the information that the researchers could gather from the trial, they did see that the patients on dabrafenib plus trametinib saw a higher rate of pathologic complete response, which seems to correlate with improved relapse-free survival, and perhaps even overall survival.