🎗️ Melanoma — 2026-W39

What this page is. Every paper the week's monitor reviewed — including the ones that did not go into the digest. Material marked “Not selected” was reviewed and deliberately left out. It has not been fact-checked to digest standard and is not endorsed. For the curated read, see the digest itself.

Multicenter retrospective real-world cohort of first-line nivolumab-relatlimab in advanced melanoma, published in Eur J Cancer, including older/frailer patients than trial populations. Confirms efficacy and tolerability outside trials but with a modest sample size, offering incremental reassurance rather than practice change.

Retrospective two-center cohort study in melanoma patients with brain metastases treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab, published in Eur J Cancer. Compares 'flipped' versus traditional dosing and suggests flipped dosing may offer better tolerability with comparable or improved response, informing dosing choice in this population.

Narrative review summarizing 2025 advances in autologous cellular therapies (TIL, TCR-T, engineered TIL platforms) for melanoma and solid tumors, published in Cancer. Highlights emerging cell therapy options and durable responses that could shape future treatment sequencing in advanced melanoma.

Markov modeling/simulation study in Eur J Cancer using data from pivotal melanoma trials to compare omitting sentinel lymph node biopsy versus standard SLNB-adjuvant therapy in resectable stage III melanoma. Suggests SLNB omission with neoadjuvant therapy at recurrence could improve outcomes, potentially informing future practice but based on simulated rather than prospective trial data.

Retrospective multi-institutional cohort study characterizing cancer phenotypes associated with a CDKN2A germline variant (I49T) in individuals of Mexican ancestry, published in JCO Precision Oncology. Findings inform genetic counseling and risk assessment for melanoma and pancreatic cancer in variant carriers but do not address treatment selection.

Translational imaging-mass-cytometry study in J Immunother Cancer examining whether frailty alters the melanoma tumor microenvironment and immune checkpoint blockade response. Finds frailty largely does not change TME composition or outcomes, providing reassurance but limited direct treatment-selection utility given small sample size.