Dr. Randal Weber on Future Treatment Approaches for Patients With Melanoma

Randal S. Weber, MD, FACS, professor, department chair, John Brooks Williams and Elizabeth Williams Distinguished University Chair in Cancer Medicine, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses future treatment approaches for patients with melanoma.

Approximately one-third of patients with metastatic melanoma are showing dramatic responses to immunotherapy agents, Weber explains. Though these patients may have previously had a life expectancy of 6 months or less, such therapies are associated with durable remissions lasting several years.

However, Weber says that, in the future, researchers hope to determine which patients will be most likely to respond to these therapies, with either single agents or combination regimens. Additionally, he hopes that immunotherapy drugs could be administered in second-, third-, and fourth-line settings for high-risk patients following locoregional therapy to prolong survival.