Extended study: experience of using rehabilitation magnetotherapy in patients with melanoma receiving immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is becoming an increasingly popular cancer treatment method due to its high specificity and potential to be more effective than traditional approaches. The problem of the use of concomitant rehabilitation measures remains in the highlight, as they can help reduce unwanted side effects of the main treatment and improve the overall quality of life of patients. Purpose of the study. To expand the comparative analysis of the quality of life of patients diagnosed with melanoma and receiving immunotherapy, as well as the overall response rate during treatment with the use of accompanying rehabilitation magnetotherapy. Materials and methods. The study included 128 patients diagnosed with melanoma and receiving immunotherapy with pembrolizumab or nivolumab. The patients of the study group (n = 67) underwent a course of immunotherapy and an accompanying course of rehabilitation magnetotherapy. The patients in the control group underwent a course of immunotherapy without accompanying rehabilitation magnetotherapy. Treatment efficacy was assessed according to iRECIST 1.1 criteria. The EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire was used to study the quality of life. The degree of adverse events was assessed according to CTCAE 5.0 criteria. Results. The objective response rate in the study group (70.1 %) was higher than in the control group (65.6 %). Stabilization was the most frequent response to systemic treatment in most cases: 41.8 % in the study group and 49.2 % in the control group. In the study group, the improvement in the overall quality of life was more noticeable and amounted to 9.6 %, while in the control group, the improvement was at the level of 6.2 % (Т = 0.4, р = 0.023). Improvement in the general level of health was noted by 10.9 % in the study group and by 5.4 % in the control group (Т = 0.43, р = 0.015). Conclusion. The use of accompanying rehabilitation magnetotherapy during the course of immunotherapy led to an improvement in the overall quality of life of patients and a decrease in treatment side effects. Further research in this area is needed in order to determine the potential of magnetotherapy as an additional rehabilitation method.