Publications by authors named "Weichenthal M"

Advances in cancer treatments have significantly improved their effectiveness, yet access to first-line therapies remains limited. A 2017 survey revealed that over 25 % of metastatic melanoma patients in Europe lacked access to recommended therapies. To address this, the European Association of Dermato-Oncology and the European Melanoma Registry conducted a follow-up study on the registration and reimbursement of first-line treatments.

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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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  • 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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Combined BRAF/MEK-inhibition constitutes a relevant treatment option for -mutated advanced melanoma. The prospective, non-interventional COMBI-r study assessed the effectiveness and tolerability of the BRAF-inhibitor dabrafenib combined with the MEK-inhibitor trametinib in patients with advanced melanoma under routine clinical conditions. Progression-free survival (PFS) was the primary objective, and secondary objectives included overall survival (OS), disease control rate, duration of therapy, and the frequency and severity of adverse events.

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Background: Adjuvant therapy with immune-checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) or BRAF/MEK-directed targeted therapy (TT) improves recurrence-free survival (RFS) for patients with advanced, V600-mutant (mut) resected melanoma. However, 40% of these patients will develop distant metastases (DM) within 5 years, which require systemic therapy. Little data exist to guide the choice of upfront adjuvant therapy or treatment management upon DM.

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Article Synopsis
  • PD-1-based immune checkpoint inhibitors are key treatments for melanoma, and tumor PD-L1 expression is a crucial biomarker for predicting therapy success.
  • This study analyzed PD-L1 levels from various tumor tissues, including primary tumors and metastases, from 448 patients who received treatment between 2014 and 2020, comparing their correlation with treatment outcomes like best overall response and survival rates.
  • Results showed that PD-L1 positivity in lymph node metastases was significantly associated with better treatment responses and overall survival, while primary tumors and skin/subcutaneous metastases showed weaker correlations.
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Metastases of uveal melanoma (UM) spread predominantly to the liver. Due to low response rates to systemic therapies, liver-directed therapies (LDT) are commonly used for tumor control. The impact of LDT on the response to systemic treatment is unknown.

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Background: Melanomas frequently harbour somatic mutations in BRAF (40%) or NRAS (20%). Impact of NRAS mutations on the therapeutic outcome of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) remains controversial. Potential correlation of the NRAS mutational status and programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression in melanoma is unknown.

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