Abstract
Presentation Description :
Overall survival for advanced melanoma has increased from 15% at two years at the start of this decade to 51-64% in 2017. This remarkable stride has been made due to the introduction of checkpoint inhibitor therapy and targeted therapy directed at the mutant BRAF gene. More recently we have begun to see the potential of these agents much earlier, with adjuvant therapy potentially curing patients who would otherwise develop inoperable metastases and succumb to their disease. These advances are changing the way we think, as a multidisciplinary team, about diagnosis and surgical management of melanoma as well as the implementation of life changing systemic therapy in the clinic.
These new therapeutic modalities come with toxicities that are, for the most part, mild and manageable but can be complex and severe, even life threatening. This presentation will cover the mechanism of action of these agents, evidence for utility haematology and oncology and the ophthalmic complications of therapy.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.