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Q&A: Putting New Melanoma Drugs to Work in Community Practice


 

FROM THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY

In the past we debated, does it even matter that we delay recurrence. The ASCO answer should be, "It absolutely matters to our patients." So interferon and any form of adjuvant therapy is suddenly a bridge. It is a shaky bridge – made with some ropes and a few planks – it isn’t very sturdy to walk on, but we’re trying to get from here, one place where it was safe to another place where hopefully we are better off and not at the bottom of ravine. It’s real exciting – not just the data we already have but for the future and how many patients this will affect positively.

Dr. Eggermont: I think you need to separate the new drugs from the question, what are we going to do in adjuvant? In adjuvant right now, we will still have to wait for about 2.5-3 years for the outcome of the EORTC trial that randomized in double-blind ipilimumab vs. observation in patients with high-risk lymph node positive disease. That answer about ipilimumab in the adjuvant situation will not be there before 2.5 years from now. That means that until then there is only one kid on the block in the adjuvant setting, which is regular interferon, and the currently novel approach of pegylated interferon.

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