Association of PD-L1 expression with treatment outcomes in patients with BRAF mutation–positive melanoma treated with vemurafenib or cobimetinib combined with vemurafenib

Summary

The prognostic significance of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) on treatment outcomes in patients receiving BRAF with or without MEK inhibitors is not well understood. This retrospective exploratory analysis evaluated the association of tumour PD-L1 expression with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) among 210 patients in the coBRIM trial treated with cobimetinib plus vemurafenib or placebo plus vemurafenib. In the vemurafenib cohort, there was a trend of increased PFS and OS in those with PD-L1⁺ melanoma, with hazard ratios (HRs) (PD-L1⁺ versus PD-L1⁻) of 0.70 (95% CI, 0.46–1.07) and 0.69 (95% CI, 0.42–1.13) for PFS and OS, respectively. However, in patients treated with cobimetinib plus vemurafenib, a similar trend was not observed with HRs (PD-L1⁺ versus PD-L1⁻) of 1.04 (95% CI, 0.66–1.68) and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.57–1.57) for PFS and OS, respectively. The combination cobimetinib plus vemurafenib appears to overcome the poor prognosis associated with low PD-L1 expression.

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