Reversal of pre-existing NGFR-driven tumor and immune therapy resistance.

Melanomas can switch to a dedifferentiated cell state upon exposure to cytotoxic T cells. However, it is unclear whether such tumor cells pre-exist in patients and whether they can be resensitized to immunotherapy. Here, we chronically expose (patient-derived) melanoma cell lines to differentiation antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells and observe strong enrichment of a pre-existing NGFR population.

Challenges in sentinel node pathology in the era of adjuvant treatment.

Background: With the approval of adjuvant therapy for stage III melanoma, accurate staging is more important than ever. Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) is an accurate staging tool, yet the presence of capsular nevi (CN) can lead to a false-positive diagnosis.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective analysis of the American Joint Committee on Cancer 7th edition stage IIIA melanoma patients who were treated at our institute between 2000 and 2015.

External validation of the American Joint Committee on Cancer 8th edition melanoma staging system: who needs adjuvant treatment?

Now effective adjuvant therapy has arrived in melanoma, accurate staging and patient selection to optimize its risk/benefit ratio is crucial. The American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system is the most widely used and validated melanoma staging system, which recently released its 8th edition. We aimed to externally validate the prognostic and discriminatory ability for survival of the 8th edition compared to the 7th edition and evaluate prognostic factors.

Parotidectomy in patients with head and neck cutaneous melanoma with cervical lymph node involvement.

Background: Parotidectomy in melanoma of the coronal scalp and face with clinically involved cervical lymph node metastasis is based on predicted cervical lymphatic drainage described by O'Brien.

Methods: In total, 40 parotidectomies with en bloc therapeutic neck dissection were retrospectively analyzed.

Results: Lymphatic spread of melanoma to the parotid lymph nodes was observed in 10 of 40 specimens (25%).

Clinical prognostic markers in stage IIIC melanoma.

Background: Although the EORTC 18071-trial has shown a clear survival benefit for adjuvant ipilimumab, accurately selecting patients for this toxic adjuvant therapy is important. We aimed to identify prognostic factors for death and disease recurrence in AJCC stage IIIC melanoma patients.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients who underwent lymph node dissection (LND) for stage IIIC melanoma in our institution between 2000 and 2016.

PET/CT surveillance detects asymptomatic recurrences in stage IIIB and IIIC melanoma patients: a prospective cohort study.

AJCC stage IIIB and IIIC melanoma patients are at risk for disease relapse or progression. The advent of effective systemic therapies has made curative treatment of progressive disease a possibility. As resection of oligometastatic disease can confer a survival benefit and as immunotherapy is possibly most effective in a low tumor load setting, there is a likely benefit to early detection of progression.

Isolated Limb Perfusion for Melanoma is Safe and Effective in Elderly Patients.

Background: Data on isolated limb perfusion (ILP) in elderly melanoma patients are scarce. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ILP in our institutional cohort of melanoma patients.

Methods: We performed retrospective analysis of stage IIIB/C melanoma patients who underwent ILP for melanoma in-transit metastases (ITMs) in our institution between 2000 and 2016.

Clinical Prognostic Markers in Stage IIIB Melanoma.

Background: Locoregional treatment is often insufficient to guarantee long-term disease-free survival (DFS) in American Joint Committee on Cancer stage IIIB melanoma, and, in order to improve survival, effective neoadjuvant and adjuvant strategies are needed . Selecting patients for these strategies requires risk stratification, for which clinical and molecular biomarkers can be used. We aimed to detect clinical biomarkers to identify high-risk stage IIIB melanoma patients.

Blue dye can be safely omitted in most sentinel node procedures for melanoma.

Sentinel node biopsy is a widely used staging procedure in melanoma. It is usually performed using the triple technique: lymphatic mapping after injection of a radiopharmaceutical, blue dye injection, and the use of a gamma probe. Blue dye offers visual confirmation of the location of the sentinel lymph node (SN).