Local therapy in advanced melanoma after immune checkpoint inhibitors aiming to achieve complete response

New scenarios for local therapy have arisen after starting immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) to treat advanced melanoma (AM). The aim of this study is to examine the role of local therapies with curative intention for patients with AM that have been on ICI.

This was a single institution, retrospective analysis of unresectable stage III or IV melanoma patients on treatment with anti-PD1 ± anti-CTLA-4 who underwent local therapy with curative intention with no other remaining sites of disease (NRD).

Of the 170 patients treated with ICI, 19 (11.2%) met the criteria of curative intention. The median time on ICI before local therapy was 16.6 months (range: 0.92-43.2). At the time of the local treatment, the disease was controlled in 16 (84.25%) and progressing in 3 patients (15.75%); 14 patients (73.7%) treated a single lesion and 5 (26.3%) treated 2 to 3 lesions. In a median follow-up of 17 months (range: 1.51-38.2) after the local therapy and 9.8 months after the last ICI cycle (range: 0.56-31), only 2 (10.5%) out of 19 patients relapsed.

Patients with AM on treatment with ICI were able to achieve NRD after local treatment and may benefit from long-term disease control without systemic treatment.