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CASE REPORT article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Skin Cancer
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1437325

Fast disease progression during adjuvant therapy with anti-PD-1 in stage III melanoma patients

Provisionally accepted
Francesca Romana Di Pietro Francesca Romana Di Pietro Sofia Verkhovskaia Sofia Verkhovskaia Rosa Falcone Rosa Falcone Giulia Poti Giulia Poti Maria Luigia Carbone Maria Luigia Carbone *Maria Francesca Morelli Maria Francesca Morelli Albina Rita ZappalĂ  Albina Rita ZappalĂ  Roberto Morese Roberto Morese Zorika Chrisiana Di Rocco Zorika Chrisiana Di Rocco Gabriele Piesco Gabriele Piesco Paolo Chesi Paolo Chesi Cristina M. Failla Cristina M. Failla Federica De Galitiis Federica De Galitiis Paolo Marchetti Paolo Marchetti
  • Institute of Immaculate Dermatology (IRCCS), Rome, Lazio, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background. Stage III surgically resected melanoma is a disease at high risk of recurrence. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and the target therapy with BRAF and MEK inhibitors significantly changed the outcome of patients with metastatic melanoma and several studies have also shown their benefit in the adjuvant setting for the delay of recurrence in stage III melanoma patients. Hyperprogression disease was observed as a possible adverse response to immunotherapy in the metastatic setting, suggesting that some patients could face addit ional risk of progression with ICIs, although no consensus was found for the correct definition of this event. Case presentation. We describe here two cases of rapid multiorgan metastatization during adjuvant immunotherapy in patients with stage III resected melanoma. Even though it would be not accurate to define this syndrome as hyperprogression because of apparent absence of the initial disease in the adjuvant setting, we observed in these two cases the same very rapid progression after first administration of adjuvant ICIs that resulted in death of patients within two months from the starting of treatment. Both patients had NRAS mutated melanoma.There is an urgent need for a better understanding of the causes of these fatal outcomes and for the identification of biomarkers that would allow to select the patients before offering them an adjuvant treatment, reducing the risk of hyperprogression. From these cases, we suggest that it could be useful a particular attention in proposing ICI adjuvant treatment based on the molecular profile.

    Keywords: Melanoma, Adjuvant immunotherapy, anti-PD-1, hyperprogression disease, Molecular profiling

    Received: 23 May 2024; Accepted: 16 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Di Pietro, Verkhovskaia, Falcone, Poti, Carbone, Morelli, Zappalà, Morese, Di Rocco, Piesco, Chesi, Failla, De Galitiis and Marchetti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Maria Luigia Carbone, Institute of Immaculate Dermatology (IRCCS), Rome, 00167, Lazio, Italy

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