Posted on 09/13/2022 2:27:53 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
In an international, multicenter Phase II clinical trial led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 63.3% of patients with stage II–IV cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) saw their tumors nearly or completely disappear when treated with immunotherapy before surgery.
The anti-PD1 therapy cemiplimab was well-tolerated, and the study met its primary endpoint with a pathologic complete response (pCR) rate of 50.6%, meaning no tumor cells were found at surgery. Another 12.7% of patients had a major pathological response (MPR), with less than 10% viable tumor found at surgery. The responses were confirmed by independent central pathologic review.
"These results represent the highest response rate to neoadjuvant anti-PD1 monotherapy in any solid cancer so far and likely are the start of a practice change for how we treat advanced, resectable cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma," said study principal investigator and lead author Neil Gross, M.D.
The current standard of care, involving surgical excision and radiation, can be disfiguring and result in loss of important functions.
Sixty-two patients received all four doses and 70 patients underwent surgery. Of the nine patients who did not have surgery, three declined because imaging showed their cancer responded to the immunotherapy, two were lost to follow-up/non-compliance, two had progressive disease and two experienced adverse events.
Overall, 14 patients (17.7%) experienced grade three or higher adverse events. The most common events of any grade were fatigue (30.4%), rash (13.9%), diarrhea (13.9%) and nausea (13.9%). Four patients died; one death, an exacerbation of cardiac failure, was considered related to treatment. There were no new safety signals for anti-PD1 immunotherapy treatment.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Now that I have just finished going through 6 removals and nose reconstruction.
Perfect timing!
Wish this was around years ago. My brother died of skin cancer when he was 48. It’s unusual to die of it, but it went from his head down into his brain and spread like a spider web.
SAVE
Bkmk
BKMK
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