The US regulator has approved Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as a treatment for melanoma patents aged 12 and over with stage 2B, 2C and 3 tumours to prevent the recurrence of the cancer after the surgical removal.
Moving checkpoint inhibitors further up the treatment pathway into earlier adjuvant and neoadjuvant (pre-surgery) lines of therapy is a key objective for their developers, expanding the patient population eligible for treatment.
Stage 2 and 3 melanoma is usually not treated with drugs after surgery at the moment, with most patients simply monitored even though their risk of recurrence is nearly the same as for patients with later-stage disease who are eligible for treatment to prevent relapse.
