Should Targeted Therapy Be Continued in BRAF-Mutant Melanoma Patients after Complete Remission?

Background: Targeted therapy is used to treat patients with a BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma and is continued until disease progression or severe toxicity. No robust data on the management of patients achieving a complete remission (CR) are available.

Main objective: To determine the relapse rate in the first year after targeted therapy discontinuation in patients in CR.

Secondary objectives: To determine the relapse rates throughout the follow-up and to identify prognostic factors for relapse at 1 year.

Methods: A retrospective, monocentric observational study was conducted in patients with advanced melanoma included in the RIC-Mel database who discontinued targeted therapy after achieving a CR confirmed by CT scan and PET/CT scan.

Results: Twenty-nine patients were included. Seventeen (58.6%) patients were treated with BRAF inhibitor (BRAFi) alone and 12 (41.4%) with a BRAFi combined with a MEK inhibitor (BRAFi + MEKi). The median treatment duration was 9.7 months. The relapse rates after discontinuation were 69% at 12 months (BRAFi: 70.6%; BRAFi + MEKi: 66.7%) and 76% at 36 months (BRAFi: 76.5%; BRAFi + MEKi: 75%). A non-significant trend towards a higher risk of relapse was found in women (p = 0.1; RR 3.36; 95% CI 0.77-17.07), in patients with an LDH level greater than the upper limits of normal (p = 0.58; RR 2.43; 95% CI 0.10-56.71), and when more than two metastatic sites were involved (p = 0.19; RR 4.6; 95% CI 0.46-46.51). After relapse, targeted therapy was resumed in 17 patients (7 with BRAFi; 10 with BRAFi + MEKi) with a response rate of 53%.

Conclusions: This real-life study provided long-term data in patients who discontinued targeted therapy after CR. Most patients experienced a relapse in the first year after targeted therapy discontinuation, of whom 50% were in the first 3 months. After targeted therapy resumption, 53% of relapsing patients achieved an objective response. Patients should be followed during the first year after treatment discontinuation. In addition, patients with less than 3 metastatic sites, a baseline LDH level with normal ranges, men, and patients responding rapidly to treatment would be more likely to maintain a CR after treatment discontinuation.