Best supportive care in combination with polychemotherapy versus best supportive care alone as second-line therapy in stage IV metastatic melanoma (DeCOG MM-PAL 8)
8567 Background: To date, there is no evidence of survival benefit from randomized trials in stage IV metastatic melanoma (MM) after disease progression to first-line therapy. Therefore, we initiated a phase III trial to evaluate the impact on survival of polychemotherapy in patients (pts.) receiving best supportive care (BSC) as second-line therapy. Methods: This prospective multicenter controlled study was conducted by the Dermatologic Cooperative Oncology Group (DeCOG) with 13 participating centers. Pts. with stage IV MM disease between 18 and 75 yrs. and a Karnofsky performance status (KPS) > 60 with progression after first-line chemotherapy or chemo-immunotherapy were offered to choose between polychemotherapy + BSC or BSC alone. Pts. were required to have adequate renal, liver and bone marrow function. The regimen consisted of cisplatin (50 mg/m2), vindesine (3 mg/m2) and dacarbacin (450 mg/m2) given on day 1 and 8 every 28 days (CVD). Reevaluation according to WHO response criteria were performed every 2 cycles. Primary endpoint was the median overall survival (OS). Secondary endpoints were overall response rate (OR) (only CVD arm) and quality of life (QOL). Results: Between 1/02 and 8/06 120 pts. were recruited, a minority of 35 pts. (29%) chose the BSC arm (A) and 85 (71%) the CVD + BSC arm (B). Five pts. were ineligible, and thus 115 pts. treated per protocol. There was a significant lower KPS in arm A at study entry. At the time of data analysis, 85% of the pts. had died from melanoma. There was no siginificant difference (p=0.093) in median OS between the two arms, 9.0 [95% CI: 3,9–14,1] months in arm A and 8.0 [95% CI: 6,5–9,5] months in arm B. The OR in arm B was 7.5% (2 CR, 3 PR). Conclusions: Polychemotherapy (CVD) + BSC as second-line therapy in stage IV MM does not improve overall survival as compared to BSC alone. No significant financial relationships to disclose.