Multicenter retrospective real-world study of first-line immunotherapy or targeted therapy for BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma

Immunotherapy and targeted therapy are two alternative first-line treatments for BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma. A retrospective study at five centers in the Czech Republic compared the real-world activity of both treatments. Among 65 patients receiving with anti-PD-1 monotherapy and 109 patients receiving targeted therapy, the ORR was 51% and 72%, respectively. The median progression-free survival was not significantly different between the two groups, while the median overall survival was significantly longer with immunotherapy. In multivariate analysis, elevated serum LDH and presence of lung metastases were associated with worse PFS. The authors conclude that both first-line immunotherapy and first-line targeted therapy had real-world activity for BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma.