My Treatment Approach: Evolving Treatment Strategies in Metastatic Melanoma - Episode 6

Exploring Immunotherapy Resistance: Impact on Treatment Decisions in Melanoma

Nikhil Khushalani, MD, examines immunotherapy resistance in melanoma treatment, providing valuable insights into navigating challenges and its impact on treatment decisions.

This is a video synopsis/summary of an OncLive Insights® involving Afreen Shariff, MD, MBBS; Javid Moslehi, MD; and Nikhil Khushalani, MD.

This segment discusses how concerns about immune resistance affect optimal timing of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for melanoma. Khushalani explains that with adjuvant treatment for resected disease, the goal is preventing metastases from micrometastatic disease. Despite therapy, some patients still experience relapse while on adjuvant therapy.It is unclear whether relapse during adjuvant therapy represents primary resistance or what the significance is of the time interval between completing adjuvant treatment and relapse.

Currently, the field arbitrarily uses a 6-month interval after finishing adjuvant anti–PD-1 therapy to distinguish patients more likely to benefit from repeat immune checkpoint blockade (relapse > 6 months later) vs those who may have primary refractory disease (relapse within 6 months). Further research is needed to better define these patient cohorts and resistance patterns.

Video synopsis is AI generated and reviewed by OncLive® editorial staff.