Publications by authors named "Michael Weichenthal"

Introduction: For rare skin cancers, few data exist on the outcome of systemic therapies, particularly immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI). The present study analysed the real-world use of different systemic therapies including ICI, and its outcome in patients with advanced rare skin cancers.

Methods: This retrospective multicenter study included patients who received systemic therapy for advanced, non-resectable cutaneous angiosarcoma (AS), Kaposi sarcoma (KS), pleomorphic dermal sarcoma (PDS), or cutaneous adnexal carcinoma (CAC).

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Background: Females and males differ in their innate and acquired immune responses. Thus, it is hypothesized that the efficacy of anti-tumor immunotherapies may differ by sex. This study aimed to investigate sex-specific survival differences upon different therapy types in metastatic melanoma.

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Background: The anti-PD1 antibody (PD1i) cemiplimab is approved as second-line treatment for locally advanced or metastatic basal cell carcinoma (BCC), resulting in an ORR of 20-30 %. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of cemiplimab as first-line or second-line treatment of BCC in a German real-world patient cohort.

Methods: Patients with histologically confirmed locally advanced or metastatic BCC who were treated with cemiplimab were retrospectively identified from the prospective multicenter real-world skin cancer registry ADOREG.

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Background: Melanoma is the main cause of skin cancer-related death. Treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) has improved the prognosis in recent years. However, subtypes of melanoma differ in their response.

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Background: Adjuvant treatment with anti-PD1 antibodies has been shown to effectively reduce the risk of recurrence in patients with resected metastatic melanoma. Whether a full 12-month duration of treatment is needed to achieve full clinical benefit is not known. This study investigated the survival outcome depending on the duration of adjuvant anti-PD1 therapy.

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Background: Adjuvant immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) with anti-PD-1 antibodies in high-risk resected melanoma has been shown to improve recurrence-free survival. It is unclear whether prior adjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy is associated with altered response to subsequent ICI treatment in the metastatic setting.

Methods: Using data from the European Melanoma Registry (EUMelaReg), we analyzed the efficiency of first-line (1L) ICI in non-resectable or metastatic melanoma after failure from prior adjuvant anti-PD-1 treatment.

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Background: Although systemic therapies have improved considerably over the last decade, up to 50% of patients with metastatic melanoma still die due to disease progression. Oncological treatment at the end-of-life phase is challenging. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency and type of systemic therapy received by melanoma patients in their end-of-life phase.

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Background: Modern therapeutic strategies have significantly improved the prognosis of advanced melanoma patients. Predictive factors of therapy response include serum LDH; however, predictive markers for long-term survival are currently largely lacking.

Patients And Methods: Patients diagnosed with stage IV melanoma (AJCCv8) of cutaneous origin or unknown primary were identified from the prospective multicenter German Dermatologic Cooperative Oncology Group (DeCOG) skin cancer registry ADOREG.

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Background: Cancer immunotherapy has revolutionized melanoma treatment, but the high number of non-responders still emphasizes the need for improvement of therapy. One potential avenue for enhancing anti-tumor treatment is through the modulation of coagulation and platelet activity. Both have been found to play an important role in the tumor microenvironment, tumor growth and metastasis.

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Basal cell carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor in the fair-skinned population and its incidence continues to rise. An update of the S2k guideline with the participation of all specialist societies familiar with the clinical picture and previous literature research is of great importance for the quality of care for affected patients. In addition to epidemiology, diagnostics and histology are discussed.

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Background: Although data on patients treated with pembrolizumab are available from clinical trials and single-country real-world reports, to our knowledge no multi-country real-world studies have investigated the use of pembrolizumab as an adjuvant treatment for stage III melanoma.

Methods: We used the European Melanoma Registry (EUMelaReg), a disease entity-based registry specific for melanoma, to examine treatment and outcomes for adult patients with stage III melanoma with lymph node involvement who had complete resection and received adjuvant treatment with pembrolizumab. The primary objectives were to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of the included patients as well as time on adjuvant pembrolizumab treatment (TOT), real-world recurrence-free survival (RFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) from adjuvant pembrolizumab initiation.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied patients with advanced skin cancer (melanoma) to see how well they responded to a special treatment called immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI).
  • They found that only about 8% of patients responded quickly to the treatment, while others had slower responses or did not respond at all.
  • Despite the quick responders showing some improvement, they didn’t live longer or have better outcomes than those who responded later to the treatment.
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Background: Melanomas lacking mutations in BRAF, NRAS and NF1 are frequently referred to as "triple wild-type" (tWT) melanomas. They constitute 5-10 % of all melanomas and remain poorly characterized regarding clinical characteristics and response to therapy. This study investigates the largest multicenter collection of tWT-melanomas to date.

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This study investigated whether adjuvant treatments in stage III cutaneous melanoma (CM) influenced patterns of recurrence. Patients with primary (n = 1033) or relapsed CM (n = 350) who received adjuvant therapies with Nivolumab (N), Pembrolizumab (P), or Dabrafenib and Trametinib (D + T) were extracted from the prospective multicenter real-world skin cancer registry ADOReg. Endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), organ-specific DMFS, and overall survival (OS).

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Article Synopsis
  • - The treatment options for metastatic uveal melanoma (UM) are still limited and the overall prognosis is poor, despite recent advancements; immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is a common treatment but can cause severe adverse effects.
  • - A study involving 194 patients analyzed the relationship between immune-related adverse events (irAE) and survival outcomes, finding that those with severe irAE had better overall survival compared to those without or with mild irAE.
  • - The results suggest that certain types of irAE, like irColitis and irHepatitis, may be linked to longer survival, indicating that a lower tolerance to tumor antigens might correlate with a lower tolerance to self-antigens.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study examines the effectiveness of combining anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 therapies compared to anti-PD-1 alone for advanced melanoma patients with liver metastases.
  • Results showed a higher objective response rate in the combination therapy group (47%) versus anti-PD-1 monotherapy (35%), though no significant differences were found in progression-free or overall survival rates.
  • The study concludes that combination therapy may offer better treatment responses, suggesting it should be considered for patients with liver metastases in future treatment plans.
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Phototherapy is an efficient therapy for a variety of skin diseases. Various drugs can cause photosensitivity and impact tolerability of phototherapy. The tolerability was investigated of narrowband ultraviolet-B 311 nm therapy in dependence on the underlying disease and long-term co-medication.

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Background: The treatment of melanoma has been revolutionized by the use of immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI), but many patients do not benefit. Furthermore, immune-related adverse events may occur during therapy. A predictive biomarker is needed to reliably identify patients benefitting.

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Background: The impact of immunosuppressive therapy (IST) on immune-checkpoint inhibition (ICI) is unclear.

Methods: Patients with unresectable advanced melanoma (MM) treated with ICI in the years 2011-2020 were identified from the prospective multicenter German skin cancer registry ADOREG. Patients with IST within 60 days before, or within 30 days after start of ICI were compared to patients without IST.

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Actinic keratosis (AK) are common lesions in light-skinned individuals that can potentially progress to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). Both conditions may be associated with significant morbidity and constitute a major disease burden, especially among the elderly. To establish an evidence-based framework for clinical decision making, the guideline "actinic keratosis and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma" was updated and expanded by the topics cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in situ (Bowen's disease) and actinic cheilitis.

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