ASCO24 Updates: Dr. Fade Mahmoud on Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy and Evolving Melanoma Treatment Standards

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting is one of the largest and most prestigious conferences in the field of oncology. This year, the meeting took place from May 31 to June 4 in Chicago, Illinois. The event gathers oncologists, researchers, and healthcare professionals from around the world to discuss the latest advancements in cancer research, treatment, and patient care. Keynote sessions, research presentations, and panel discussions are typically part of the agenda, providing attendees with valuable insights into emerging trends and innovations in oncology.

This year, OncoDaily was at ASCO 2024 for the first time covering the meeting on-site. We had the pleasure of interviewing researchers who summarized the highlights of their work.

In this video, Dr. Fade Mahmoud, a medical oncologist and associate program director at the T.W. Lewis Melanoma Center of Excellence, shared insights on ‘Neoadjuvant immunotherapy in clinical stage III melanoma: Real life experience in the community settings‘

My name is Fade Mahmoud. I’m a medical oncologist and I’m the associate program director at the T.W. Lewis Melanoma Center of Excellence at the Banner MD Anderson in Gilbert, Arizona. My main interest is treating people and patients with melanoma and in regard to our approved abstract, it was about patients with clinically positive disease, meaning patients with melanoma who presented with an enlarged lymph node or a disease that was seen on imaging and it should be at least one centimeter in size, either a palpable lymph node or a lymph node detected on imaging.

We gave these people neoadjuvant treatment, ipilimumab 1 milligram per kilogram and nivolumab 3 milligram per kilogram for at least one cycle. Most of our patients in the study got two cycles and in order to be eligible for the study, you need at least one cycle. So in our study, 66% of the people who received neoadjuvant dual immunotherapy, at least one cycle of ipilimumab and nivolumab achieved a 66% complete pathologic response and there has been a discrepancy between a pathologic response and radiologic response.

Only 28% of our people in the study achieved a complete radiologic response. So I think neoadjuvant immunotherapy, we’re seeing a high response rate and with the results of the nadina trial that came out just today, June 2nd, I think neoadjuvant immunotherapy for people with clinically positive disease, this trial will change the standard of care and it will become a practice change in the United States.

More videos and content from ASCO 2024 on OncoDaily.