Long-Term Results With Vismodegib in Advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma: From The Netherlands
Posted: Tuesday, March 2, 2021
According to retrospective research presented in the British Journal of Cancer, the Hedgehog pathway inhibitor vismodegib appeared to have a limited effect among patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma, with approximately half of the patients experiencing disease progression within 1 year of starting treatment. Klara Mosterd, MD, PhD, of Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues analyzed the treatment’s efficacy among patients in the Netherlands over 8 years.
The study included 78 patients—48 with locally advanced disease, 11 with metastatic disease, and 19 with basal cell nevus syndrome—who had received at least one dose of vismodegib between July 2011 and September 2019. The median progression-free survival was less than 1 year for patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease, at 10.3 months (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7.5–22.6, at 19.1 months) and 11.7 months (95% CI = 5.2–17.5 months), respectively. Patients with basal cell nevus syndrome experienced a median progression-free survival of 19.1 months (95% CI = 7.4–20.2 months). Half of the patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma experienced disease progression within 1 year of initiating vismodegib treatment. Patients with larger locally advanced carcinomas seemed less likely to achieve a complete response (hazard ratio = 0.77 per increase in cm, P = .02). A total of 63% of patients with basal cell nevus syndrome underwent at least two treatment sequences, all of whom achieved a partial response.
“Future research should focus on treatment combinations or options after vismodegib failure and defining which patients can achieve a prolonged complete response,” concluded the study authors.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.