Publications by authors named "Berkmortel F"

Background: Adjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy improves relapse free survival in stage III melanoma, but also leads to immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Older patients are of particular interest due to comorbidities and frailty, which may impact their ability to tolerate irAEs and benefit from anti-PD-1 therapy. This study aimed to explore associations between clinical parameters and the occurrence of grade ≥ 3 irAEs and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in older patients with radically resected stage III/IV cutaneous melanoma treated with adjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy.

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Background: Patient demographics and shared decision making might influence the choice of adjuvant therapy for stage III melanoma.

Objective: To identify factors for treatment selection of patients diagnosed with stage III melanoma to better understand current treatment decisions and improve further treatment counseling.

Patients And Methods: Data from 2007 patients diagnosed with stage III melanoma, between December 2018 and 2021, sourced from the Dutch Cancer Registry, were analyzed.

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Importance: Long-term survival data from clinical trials show that survival curves of patients with advanced melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) gradually reach a plateau, suggesting that patients have a chance of achieving long-term survival.

Objective: To investigate long-term survival in patients with advanced melanoma treated with ICIs outside clinical trials.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Cohort study using prospectively collected data from the nationwide Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry, including patients in the Netherlands with advanced melanoma treated with first-line ICIs from 2012 to 2019.

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: The difference in incidence and severity of anti-PD-1 therapy-related adverse events (irAEs) between adjuvant and advanced treated melanoma patients remains unclear, as no head-to-head studies have compared these groups. : This multi-center cohort study analyzed melanoma patients treated with anti-PD-1 in adjuvant or advanced settings between 2015 and 2021. Comorbidities and ECOG performance status were assessed before treatment, and grade III-IV irAEs were monitored during treatment.

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Background: The predictive value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in immune-related adverse event (irAE) development remains unknown, although an association between tumor immunogenicity and irAEs has been suggested. We investigated the association between TIL abundance in pretreatment primary and metastasis specimens and the subsequent development of severe irAEs.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma who received first-line anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) with or without anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4 (anti-CTLA-4) from 10 hospitals in the Netherlands.

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Introduction: The presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in melanoma has been linked to survival. Their predictive capability for immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) response remains uncertain. Therefore, we investigated the association between treatment response and TILs in the largest cohort to date and analyzed if this association was independent of known clinical predictors.

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Purpose: Patients with chemotherapy-induced ovarian function failure (CIOFF) may experience ovarian function recovery (OFR). Earlier, we showed that OFR during treatment with anastrozole impacted the prognosis of hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer (BC) patients with CIOFF. Here, we present the long-term follow-up results.

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Previous studies demonstrated limited efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in unresectable acral melanoma (AM); it remains unclear how this translates to the adjuvant setting. This study investigates clinical outcomes of acral compared to cutaneous melanoma (CM) patients treated with adjuvant anti-PD-1 after complete resection. All stages III-IV AM and CM patients receiving adjuvant anti-PD-1 after complete resection between 2018 and 2022 were included from the prospective nationwide Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry.

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Background: Recent studies indicate an association between immunosuppression for immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and impaired survival in patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitors. Whether this is related to corticosteroids or second-line immunosuppressants is unknown. In the largest cohort thus far, we assessed the association of immunosuppressant type and dose with survival in melanoma patients with irAEs.

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Article Synopsis
  • In a study comparing neoadjuvant (before surgery) and adjuvant (after surgery) immunotherapy for stage III melanoma, neoadjuvant treatment showed greater effectiveness.
  • The trial involved random assignment of 423 patients to receive either two cycles of neoadjuvant ipilimumab plus nivolumab followed by surgery, or surgery followed by 12 cycles of adjuvant nivolumab.
  • Results indicated a significantly higher 12-month event-free survival rate in the neoadjuvant group (83.7%) compared to the adjuvant group (57.2%), with neoadjuvant therapy leading to better patient outcomes and more major pathological responses despite a higher incidence of severe adverse events.
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Background: Patients with irresectable stage III or metastatic melanoma presenting with poor prognostic factors are usually treated with a combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), consisting of ipilimumab and nivolumab. This combination therapy is associated with severe immune related adverse events (irAEs) in about 60% of patients. In current clinical practice, patients are usually treated with ICIs for up to two years or until disease progression or the occurrence of unacceptable AEs.

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We evaluated the prognostic value of hypoalbuminemia in context of various biomarkers at baseline, including clinical, genomic, transcriptomic, and blood-based markers, in patients with metastatic melanoma treated with anti-PD-1 monotherapy or anti-PD-1/anti-CTLA-4 combination therapy (n = 178). An independent validation cohort (n = 79) was used to validate the performance of hypoalbuminemia compared to serum LDH (lactate dehydrogenase) levels. Pre-treatment hypoalbuminemia emerged as the strongest predictor of poor outcome for both OS (HR = 4.

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Background: The prognosis of advanced melanoma patients has significantly improved over the years. We aimed to evaluate the survival per year of diagnosis.

Methods: All systemically treated patients diagnosed with advanced melanoma from 2013 to 2021 were included from the Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry.

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Predicting who will benefit from treatment with immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) in patients with advanced melanoma is challenging. We developed a multivariable prediction model for response to ICI, using routinely available clinical data including primary melanoma characteristics. We used a population-based cohort of 3525 patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma treated with anti-PD-1-based therapy.

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Background: Effectivity of BRAF(/MEK) inhibitor rechallenge has been described in prior studies. However, structured data are largely lacking.

Methods: Data from all advanced melanoma patients treated with BRAFi(/MEKi) rechallenge were retrieved from the Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry.

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Exploratory analyses of high-dose alkylating chemotherapy trials have suggested that BRCA1 or BRCA2-pathway altered (BRCA-altered) breast cancer might be particularly sensitive to this type of treatment. In this study, patients with BRCA-altered tumors who had received three initial courses of dose-dense doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (ddAC), were randomized between a fourth ddAC course followed by high-dose carboplatin-thiotepa-cyclophosphamide or conventional chemotherapy (initially ddAC only or ddAC-capecitabine/decetaxel [CD] depending on MRI response, after amendment ddAC-carboplatin/paclitaxel [CP] for everyone). The primary endpoint was the neoadjuvant response index (NRI).

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Despite the improved survival rates of patients with advanced stage melanoma since the introduction of ICIs, many patients do not have (long-term) benefit from these treatments. There is evidence that the exposome, an accumulation of host-extrinsic factors including environmental influences, could impact ICI response. Recently, a survival benefit was observed in patients with BRAF wild-type melanoma living in Denmark who initiated immunotherapy in summer as compared to winter.

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The efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with advanced melanoma that develop brain metastases (BM) remains unpredictable. In this study, we aimed to identify prognostic factors in patients with melanoma BM who are treated with ICIs. Data from advanced melanoma patients with BM treated with ICIs in any line between 2013 and 2020 were obtained from the Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry.

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In phase III trials, ipilimumab plus nivolumab combination therapy is highly efficacious for advanced melanoma, despite many treatment-related grades 3-4 adverse events. Here, we report real-world safety and survival outcomes of ipilimumab plus nivolumab for advanced melanoma. Patients with advanced melanoma who received first-line ipilimumab plus nivolumab between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2021 were selected from the Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry.

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Background: Patients diagnosed with haematologic malignancies (HMs) have a higher risk of developing subsequent solid tumours, such as melanoma. Patients with HM were mostly excluded from clinical trials but potentially derive less benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) due to disease- or treatment-related T- or B-cell dysfunction.

Methods: All advanced melanoma patients treated with anti-PD-1-based treatment or targeted therapy between 2015 and 2021 were included from the prospective nationwide Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry.

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Introduction: Predicting checkpoint inhibitors treatment outcomes in melanoma is a relevant task, due to the unpredictable and potentially fatal toxicity and high costs for society. However, accurate biomarkers for treatment outcomes are lacking. Radiomics are a technique to quantitatively capture tumour characteristics on readily available computed tomography (CT) imaging.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A panel of 39 Dutch experts used a modified Delphi method to discuss and vote on the appropriateness of testing, reaching consensus on only 44% of their questions.
  • * Key findings suggest that patients with a family history might benefit from certain types of genetic testing, but limitations include a lack of scientific evidence for some recommendations and a limited number of specialists involved in the discussions.
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Article Synopsis
  • The introduction of BRAF/MEK inhibition and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has led to significantly better outcomes for patients with advanced melanoma.
  • A study analyzed data from the Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry to explore the connection between the time to first distant recurrence (TFDR) and patient survival after systemic therapy.
  • Results showed that patients with longer TFDR experienced better progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), regardless of whether they received ICI or targeted therapy, with notable differences in survival times for those with TFDR less than 2 years versus more than 5 years.
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Few clinical trials address efficacy of adjuvant systemic treatment in patients with in-transit melanoma (ITM). This study describes adjuvant systemic therapy of ITM patients beyond clinical trials. In this study, we included stage III adjuvant-treated melanoma patients registered in the nationwide Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry between July 2018 and December 2020.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates population mortality rates in advanced melanoma patients in the Netherlands, focusing on how different responses to treatment affect survival over time.
  • A total of 5119 patients diagnosed from 2013 to 2019 were analyzed, revealing that older patients have higher probabilities of dying from melanoma-related causes.
  • Although survival outcomes have improved, melanoma-related mortality remains a significant concern, particularly for patients aged 75 and above.
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