1153 - Paclitaxel/Carboplatin Chemotherapy as Salvage Treatment in Metastatic Melanoma: Is Non-Cutaneous Melanoma Different?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background There is limited data on salvage chemotherapy for metastatic, non-cutaneous melanoma after failure to dacarbazine-based chemotherapy. Given the high incidence of non-cutaneous melanoma in Korea, we focused on the treatment outcome of paclitaxel/carboplatin as salvage chemotherapy in noncutaneous metastatic melanoma. Patients and methods We retrospectively analyzed patients with metastatic melanoma who underwent paclitaxel and carboplatin (PC) chemotherapy as salvage treatment at Samsung Medical Center (SMC) between February 2009 and February 2012. The treatment schedule is as follows: intravenous paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 plus intravenous carboplatin at area under curve 5 (AUC 5) on day 1 of a 21-day interval. Overall response rate, overall and progression free survival were calculated. Results Thirty two patients (median age: 54 years, range 24 – 72 years) were treated with PC as salvage chemotherapy. All patients were pretreated and had previously received a median of 2 systemic therapies. With respect to primary site, 10 patients (31.3%) had cutaneous melanoma, 8 (25%) had acral melanoma, 10 (31.3%) had mucosal melanoma, 2 (6.3%) had ocular melanoma. Of 32 patients, 7 patients achieved partial response (PR) (21.9%) and 11 patients were stable disease (34.4%). Median progression free survival (PFS) was 2.53 months for all patients. PFS was 4.3 months for patients controlled disease (partial response and stable disease) compared to 1.37 months for patients with progressive disease (p = 0.0001). Median overall survival was 5.2 months without a significant difference between noncutaneous and cutaneous metastatic melanoma group (p =0.75). Conclusion PC chemotherapy seems to be a reasonable therapeutic option in heavily pretreated metastatic melanoma patients. Especially, this combination chemotherapy appears to have definite and clinically meaningful activity when used as salvage therapy in metastatic melanoma including non-cutaneous melanoma. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.