RESUMEN
Despite the dramatic improvements in recurrence-free survival in patients with metastatic melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), a number of patients develop metastases during adjuvant therapy. It is not currently possible to predict which patients are most likely to develop disease recurrence due to a lack of reliable biomarkers. Thus, we retrospectively analyzed the case records of all patients who commenced adjuvant ICI therapy between January 2018 and December 2021 in a single university skin cancer center (n = 46) (i) to determine the rates of disease recurrence, (ii) to examine the utility of established markers, and (iii) to examine whether re-challenge with immunotherapy resulted in clinical response. Twelve out of forty-six (26%) patients developed a relapse on adjuvant immunotherapy in our cohort, and the median time to relapse was 139 days. Adjuvant immunotherapy was continued in three patients. Of the twelve patients who developed recurrence during adjuvant immunotherapy, seven had further disease recurrence within the observation period, with a median time of 112 days after the first progress. There was no significant difference comparing early recurrence (<180 days after initiation) on adjuvant immunotherapy to late recurrence (>180 days after initiation) on adjuvant immunotherapy. Classical tumor markers, including serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and S-100, were unreliable for the detection of disease recurrence. Baseline lymphocyte and eosinophil counts and those during immunotherapy were not associated with disease recurrence. Interestingly, patients with NRAS mutations were disproportionately represented (60%) in the patients who developed disease recurrence, suggesting that these patients should be closely monitored during adjuvant therapy.
Asunto(s)
Melanoma , Neoplasias Primarias Secundarias , Neoplasias Cutáneas , Biomarcadores de Tumor , Humanos , Inhibidores de Puntos de Control Inmunológico/uso terapéutico , Inmunoterapia/métodos , Lactato Deshidrogenasas , Melanoma/patología , Recurrencia Local de Neoplasia/tratamiento farmacológico , Neoplasias Primarias Secundarias/tratamiento farmacológico , Estudios Retrospectivos , Neoplasias Cutáneas/patología , Centros de Atención TerciariaRESUMEN
With more than 82 million cases worldwide and almost two million deaths, the Covid-19 global pandemic shows little sign of abating. However, its effect on quality of life (QoL) in skin cancer patients has not been systematically evaluated to date. Given that QoL impairments may be associated with increased psychological morbidity, and may interfere with engagement with cancer therapy and follow-up, we prospectively evaluated quality of life in skin cancer patients using the Covid-19 Emotional Impact Survey (C-19EIS) and the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaires. 101 patients (48 females and 53 males) completed both questionnaires. The mean C-19EIS score was 3.8 on a scale from 0 (no impact) to 12 (severe impact). Patients undergoing systemic therapy showed significantly impaired physical (p = 0.006) and social functioning (p = 0.003). However, when compared to the published normative EORTC QLQ-C30 data, there was no evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic had significantly impacted upon overall quality of life. Subscales of the EORTC QLQ-C30 were significantly inversely correlated with the C-19EIS, validating its use in skin cancer patients. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, skin cancer patients in our tertiary referral center were surprisingly resilient. However, given the geographical variations in the rates of Sars-CoV-2 infection it is possible that the low incidence in Northern Germany may have resulted in a lack of general QoL impairments. Multi-center studies are required to further determine the impact of Covid-19 on psychological wellbeing in skin cancer patients in order to develop supportive interventions and to ensure that engagement with cancer care services is maintained in order to enable early detection of cancer progression and/or recurrence.
Asunto(s)
Antineoplásicos Inmunológicos/uso terapéutico , COVID-19/epidemiología , Calidad de Vida/psicología , Neoplasias Cutáneas/tratamiento farmacológico , Adulto , Anciano , Anciano de 80 o más Años , COVID-19/psicología , Femenino , Alemania , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Pandemias , Estudios Prospectivos , Resiliencia Psicológica , Neoplasias Cutáneas/psicología , Encuestas y Cuestionarios , Centros de Atención Terciaria , Resultado del Tratamiento , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has revolutionized the treatment of several human malignancies, particularly metastatic skin cancer. However, immune-related myocarditis (irM), an immune-mediated adverse event (irAE), is often fatal. In the absence of a reliable biomarker, measurement of pre-ICI therapy serum troponin concentration has been proposed to identify patients at risk of developing irM, although real-world studies examining this strategy are lacking. Thus, we retrospectively analyzed the case records of all patients who commenced ICI therapy between January 2018 and December 2019 in a single university skin cancer center (n = 121) to (i) determine the incidence of irM, (ii) establish the frequency of pretreatment serum hsTnT elevations, and (iii) to establish whether this identified patients who subsequently developed irM. Only one patient developed irM, resulting in an overall incidence of 0.8%. Pretreatment hsTnT was measured in 47 patients and was elevated in 13 (28%). Elevated serum hsTnT concentrations were associated with chronic renal failure (p = 0.02) and diabetes (p < 0.0002). Pretreatment hsTnT was not elevated in the patient who developed fulminant irM. Pre-immunotherapy serum hsTnT concentrations were often asymptomatically elevated in patients with advanced skin cancer, none of whom subsequently developed irM during ICI therapy. However, large studies are required to assess the positive and negative predictive values of hsTnT for the development of irM. In the meantime, elevated hsTnT concentrations should be investigated before initiation of immunotherapy and closely monitored during early treatment cycles, where the risk of irM is greatest.