Dr. Weber on Rationale for the CheckMate-238 Trial in Melanoma

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, deputy director and co-director of the Melanoma Program, NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, 2016 Giant of Cancer Care in Melanoma, discusses the rationale behind the randomized, double-blind, phase III CheckMate-238 trial in resected stage III or IV melanoma.

In 2014, the FDA approved nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. Given the activity of these agents in the metastatic setting, investigators wanted to evaluate their activity in the adjuvant setting. To that end, Weber conducted a pilot study of 33 patients with resected stage IIIC or IV melanoma who received adjuvant treatment with a peptide vaccine and nivolumab.

Based on highly encouraging data from the pilot study, the CheckMate-238 trial was designed to explore these drugs on a larger scale. Ultimately, results from the CheckMate-238 trial demonstrated an improvement in relapse-free survival with adjuvant nivolumab versus ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with resected stage III or IV melanoma.