Effectiveness of electrochemotherapy after IFN-α adjuvant therapy of melanoma patients

Abstract

Background. The combination of electrochemotherapy with immuno-modulatory treatments has already been explored and proven effective. However, the role of interferon alpha (IFN-α) adjuvant therapy of melanoma patients in electrochemotherapy effectiveness has not been explored yet. Therefore, the aim of the study was to retrospectively evaluate the effectiveness and safety of electrochemotherapy after the previous adjuvant treatment with IFN-α in melanoma patients.

Patients and methods. The study was a retrospective single-center observational analysis of the patients with advanced melanoma, treated with electrochemotherapy after previous IFN-α adjuvant therapy. Five patients, treated between January 2008 and December 2014, were included into the study, regardless of the time point of IFN-α adjuvant therapy.

Results. Electrochemotherapy of recurrent melanoma after the IFN-α adjuvant therapy proved to be safe and effective treatment. Single metastasis responded completely, while multiple metastases had a variable response rate; partial response or very high complete response rate; altogether 84.7% metastases responded completely.

Conclusion. The study showed that electrochemotherapy of recurrent melanoma after the IFN-α adjuvant therapy is a safe and effective treatment modality, which results in high complete response rate, not only in single metastasis, but also in multiple metastases. The high complete response rate might be due to IFN-α immune-editing effect, however, further studies with a larger number of patients are needed to support this presumption.

Key words: electrochemotherapy; melanoma; IFN-α