The treatment of metastatic melanoma patients is a rapidly evolving field with now six new drugs approved by the European Medicine Agency, EMA (vemurafenib, dabrafenib, cobimetinib, ipilimumab, nivolumab and pembrolizumab). The therapeutic options for advanced melanoma can be divided into two groups: treatments impacting on the immune system and targeted agents blocking essential biochemical pathways or mutant proteins that are required for melanoma cell growth and survival. Today, physicians are wondering what is the best strategy: using first-line targeted medications or start with immunotherapeutic agents. At the 2015 European Cancer Conference (ECC), updated and new results were presented in order to answer this question.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2015;9:234–39)
