Treatment of Advanced/Metastatic Melanoma in the United States and Western Europe: Results of the CancerMPact Survey

CONTEXT: Melanoma treatment has substantially changed over the last several years, yet little information regarding physician’s preferences around treatment exists. OBJECTIVE: Our aim is to describe the results of the CancerMPact (CMP) survey performed in 2019 about the treatment of advanced/metastatic melanoma. METHODS: CMP is a data source from Kantar, Health Division, containing data on cancer epidemiology and treatment. Once a year, Kantar performs a series of surveys with specialists in the field of interest in the United States of America (USA), Western Europe (WE), Japan, and China. The results of the survey reported in this work comprise the answers from 94 USA and 99 WE physicians about the treatment of melanoma. RESULTS: In the first-line for the BRAF wild-type population, immuno-oncology (IO) drugs including nivolumab, ipilimumab or pembrolizumab (alone or in combination) were used in 80.1% of the cases in the USA and 70.6% in WE. Conventional chemotherapy or cytokine-based treatments were used in 16.4% of the USA patients and 28.2% in WE. In the second-line in the USA, 45.8% of BRAF wild-type patients received IO drugs, while 45.0% of patients received conventional chemotherapy or cytokine-based treatments. The majority of patients with BRAF mutant advanced/metastatic melanoma were treated in the first-line with BRAF-targeted therapy (61.3% USA, 71.9% WE), and few patients received conventional chemotherapy or cytokine-based treatments (11.9% USA, 12.4% WE); the most commonly used BRAF-targeted therapy was the combination of dabrafenib plus trametinib. In the second-line, BRAF mutant patients received IO drugs (45.1% USA, 53.7% WE), targeted therapy (37.6% USA, 32% WE) or conventional chemotherapy/cytokine-based treatments (14.4% USA, 11.7% WE). CONCLUSION: The use of IO or targeted therapy for patients with advanced/metastatic melanoma is the preferred treatment strategy by physicians in the USA and WE based on BRAF mutation status. Many patients still receive conventional chemotherapies or cytokines with unsubstantial benefit, especially in recurrent patients of BRAF wild type.