Publications by authors named "Lea J Albrecht"
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) can achieve durable responses in patients with advanced melanoma, and results from clinical trials suggest cure may be possible for a subset of patients. Despite clinical trial data, little is known about the risk, character, and clinical outcome of late recurrences after ICI. This study aimed to explore the disease outcomes and survival in a cohort of patients with long-term responses to ICI.
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- The study highlights that dermatologists in Germany face challenges in diagnosing skin conditions in people of color (PoC), which can lead to misdiagnoses.* -
- An online survey of 129 dermatologists showed they performed better at identifying skin diseases in light skin (Ls) patients compared to patients with skin of color (SoC), correctly diagnosing 72.1% vs. 52.8% of cases.* -
- The results indicate a need for additional training for dermatologists to enhance their visual diagnostic skills and confidence when treating patients with SoC.*
Background: Effective treatment options are limited for patients with advanced melanoma who have progressed on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) and targeted therapies (TT). Preclinical models support the combination of ICI with TT; however, clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of triplet combinations in first-line setting showed limited advantage compared to TT only.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective, multicenter study, that included patients with advanced melanoma who were treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors in combination with an anti-PD-(L)1 antibody (triplet therapy) after failure of at least one anti-PD-(L)1-based therapy and one TT in seven major melanoma centers between February 2016 and July 2022.
Recent studies suggest that BRAF-mutated melanomas in particular respond to dual anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI). Here we identified an over-representation of interleukin (IL)-17-type 17 helper T (T17) gene expression signatures (GES) in BRAF-mutated tumors. Moreover, high baseline IL-17 GES consistently predicted clinical responses in dual-ICI-treated patient cohorts but not in mono anti-CTLA-4 or anti-PD-1 ICI cohorts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: Dual immune checkpoint inhibition with ipilimumab plus nivolumab is currently the most effective, but also by far the most toxic treatment for advanced melanoma. Therefore, other combination partners that also lead to high and long-lasting responses but cause fewer adverse events were explored.
Recent Findings: Relatlimab, a LAG-3 blocking antibody, was investigated in combination with nivolumab in a phase 2/3 randomized double-blind trial (RELATIVITY-047) and could demonstrate significantly improved progression-free survival in treatment-naive advanced melanoma patients compared with nivolumab monotherapy.
Background: Activating hot spot R29S mutations in RAC1, a small GTPase influencing several cellular processes including cell proliferation and cytoskeleton rearrangement, have been reported in up to 9% of sun-exposed melanomas. Clinical characteristics and treatment implications of RAC1 mutations in melanoma remain unclear.
Methods: We investigated the largest set (n = 64) of RAC1 mutated melanoma patients reported to date, including a retrospective single institution cohort (n = 34) from the University Hospital Essen and a prospective multicentre cohort (n = 30) from the translational study Tissue Registry in Melanoma (TRIM; CA209-578), for patient and tumour characteristics as well as therapy outcomes.
Background And Objectives: Systemic administration of glucocorticoids is a mainstay therapy for various inflammatory diseases and may lead to hyperglycemia, which carries the risk of worsening preexisting diabetes and triggering steroid-induced diabetes. Therefore, we aimed to identify patients at risk and to quantify severity of steroid-induced hyperglycemia (SIH) by continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in hospitalized patients needing systemic glucocorticoid treatment.
Patients And Methods: This prospective study included 51 steroid-naive, dermatological patients requiring systemic high-dose glucocorticoid treatment at the Department of Dermatology of the University Hospital Essen.
Article Synopsis
- Researchers are studying special pieces of RNA (cfRNA) in the blood of melanoma patients to find out if they can help tell if someone has melanoma, even when traditional tests might miss some people.
- Four specific types of RNA (KPNA2, DTL, BACE2, and DTYMK) were found to be more common in melanoma patients compared to healthy people, which shows that they can be good markers for the disease.
- The amount of this RNA in blood also changed during treatment, and lower levels at the beginning were linked to better chances of surviving longer without the disease getting worse.