Dr. Stilwill on Findings from the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting in Melanoma

Joseph Stilwill, MD, medical oncologist, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses exciting findings in melanoma from the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The external validation of the eighth edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging System is noteworthy, says Stilwill. Additionally, studies in the adjuvant setting confirmed that complete lymph node dissection is most likely not necessary for most patients with sentinel lymph node-positive disease.

Looking at the patient’s tumor burden and sentinel lymph node is of value, explains Stilwill. When patients with stage IIIA disease were stratified by tumor burden, physicians could see that patients with tumors of 1 mm or less showed substantially better prognosis.

That will affect how physicians practice. Moving forward, patients with low tumor burden in their sentinel lymph nodes will have to be considered for adjuvant therapy. Additionally, adjuvant therapy may be something physicians want to consider in patients with a higher tumor burden.