For Melanoma, Dacarbazine-Based Combination Therapy vs. Dacarbazine Alone May Improve Outcomes

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal PLoS One, researchers have found that dacarbazine-based combination therapies may improve overall response rates and 1-year survival rates compared with dacarbazine alone patients with advanced metastatic melanoma.

For the meta-analysis, researchers searched through various electronic databases and identified nine randomized controlled trials that included 2,481 patients with malignant melanoma who were treated with dacarbazine with or without placebo, or dacarbazine-based combination therapies. The studies were conducted between 2003 and 2013. Results showed that dacarbazine-based combination therapies were superior to dacarbazine alone in both overall response (combined risk ratio = 1.60; 95% CI: 1.27 - 2.01) and 1-year survival (combined risk ratio = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.14 - 1.39).

However, patients who received dacarbazine-based combination therapies experiences more adverse events than those who received dacarbazine alone. Particularly, nausea (combined risk ratio = 1.23; 95% CI: 1.10 - 1.36), vomiting (combined risk ratio = 1.73; 95% CI: 1.41 - 2.12), and neutropenia (combined risk ratio = 1.75; 95% CI: 1.42 - 2.16) were more common in those who received dacarbazine-based combination therapies.

The findings suggest that dacarbazine-based combination therapies may be more efficacious for patients with advanced metastatic melanoma, but not safer. The researchers suggest that larger, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies are warranted.