Real-life effectiveness on overall survival of continued immune checkpoint inhibition following progression in advanced melanoma: estimation from the Melbase cohort.

Abstract

The link between palliative care and oncology must continue to develop, taking into account advances in treatment.Immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) for metastatic melanoma is associated with different types of response, making it difficult to assess the benefits to the patient. Some clinical trials suggest a survival advantage of ICI even in the absence of an objective radiographic response. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of continuing ICI after progression of the disease on the overall survival (OS) in a cohort of final-line metastatic melanoma patients. Clinical data from 120 patients with metastatic melanoma were collected via Melbase, a French multicentric biobank, prospectively enrolling unresectable melanoma. Two groups were defined: patients continuing final-line ICI at progression (treated) and patients stopping ICI at progression (controls). The primary end-point is the OS from progression. Propensity score weighting was used to correct for indication bias. From the 120 patients, 72 (60%) continued ICI. Median OS from progression was 4.2 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.6-6.27] in the treated group and median OS was 1.3 months (95% CI 0.95-1.74) in the control group (P < 0.0001). The calculated hazard ratio was 0.20 (0.13-0.33). Continued ICI was discovered to have an association with a higher rate of hospitalization at the end of life; more treatments received in the last 15 days of life and less utilization of specialist palliative care. This study discovered that patients with metastatic melanoma show a significant decrease in the instantaneous probability of mortality when they continue with finale-line ICI after progression.