Neoadjuvant Checkpoint Inhibitor Combination Beats Standard Surgery With Adjuvant Immunotherapy in Macroscopic, Resectable Stage III Melanoma

A combination of two checkpoint inhibitors used as neoadjuvant therapy for macroscopic, resectable Stage III melanoma brought a highly statistically significant improvement over the standard of care: surgery followed by checkpoint inhibition (therapeutic lymph node dissection followed by adjuvant therapy with nivolumab, pembrolizumab or, in BRAFmut melanoma, dabrafenib + trametinib). This research was reported from the ASCO 2024 Annual Meeting and highlighted the NADINA trial from the Netherlands. After his session at ASCO, the lead author of NADINA, Christian U. Blank, MD, PhD, from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Antoni van Leeuwenhook Hospital, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, met up with Oncology Times reporter Peter Goodwin to discuss the findings.