Media release

From: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

New skin cancer treatment may reduce disfiguring surgery

Positive results for the use of neoadjuvant cemiplimab in people with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) were published in New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology held in Paris this week.

Professor Danny Rischin, Director of the Division of Cancer Medicine and Head of the Department of Medical Oncology at Peter Mac said; “Using neoadjuvant cemiplimab prior to surgery in locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma resulted in remarkable results with disappearance of all evidence of cancer prior to surgery in half the patients.

“This therapy has the potential to alter the way we treat locally advanced skin squamous cell cancers as it may allow less extensive and less disfiguring surgery and further studies may establish whether this approach decreases the need for radiotherapy.

Cemiplimab is a type of cancer treatment known as a PD-1 inhibitor that works by blocking the cancers ability to hide from the immune system.

The treatment was tested in a large international Phase II trial involving people that had stage II to IV resectable CSCC which is the second most common form of skin cancer.

In the confirmatory, multicenter, single-arm Phase II trial, 79 patients received up to four fixed doses of cemiplimab every 3 weeks prior to surgery, with 62 receiving all 4 doses and 70 undergoing surgery.

Patients experienced the following efficacy:

63.3% combined pathologic response rate (50 of 79 patients), with 50.6% (40 patients) achieving the primary endpoint of complete pathologic response (0% viable tumor, excluding a null hypothesis of 25%) and 12.7% (10 patients) experiencing a major pathologic response (>0% and ≤10% viable tumor cells) by independent pathologic review.

“Peter Mac’s involvement in the trial allowed our skin squamous cell cancer patients access to this promising treatment," said Professor Danny Rischin.

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About Peter Mac

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a world-leading cancer research, education and treatment centre and Australia’s only public health service solely dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer.