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Soo Park, MD
Soo Park, MD
Posted: Tuesday, November 12, 2024
A single-institution analysis revealed the utility of serial circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a predictive biomarker of disease progression or response with immunotherapy in patients with advanced and unresectable melanoma. Kseniya Anishchenko, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and colleagues presented their findings during the 2024 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting (Abstract 36).
“ctDNA is a minimally invasive lab test increasingly utilized as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in solid tumors,” the investigators commented. “[In this clinical context, its use] could lead to earlier changes in treatment and the ability to differentiate between [disease] progression and pseudo-progression.”
The investigators analyzed a total of 75 ctDNA blood samples, which were collected every 3 to 6 months from 28 patients given immunotherapy (median age = 62.5 years; males: 60.7%) for stage III or IV cutaneous or ocular melanoma. The timing and sensitivity of ctDNA changes were compared with radiographic (CT or MRI) responses.
More than half of the population (53.6%) experienced radiographic disease progression during the study period. The positive predictive value of ctDNA was 85.7%; ctDNA changes were found in four patients with radiographically stable disease, which, according to the investigators, potentially signified molecular residual disease. They furthermore noted that ctDNA positivity or negativity preceded radiographic response by a median of 28 days.
“[Although] larger-scale studies [with similar results] have been done in breast and colorectal cancer, further studies in melanoma are needed to validate these findings,” the investigators concluded.
Disclosure: No information regarding conflicts of interest was provided.
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