Dear Editor,
We would like to thank you for the opportunity to comment on the letter to the editor written by Lewis et al. with the title: ‘Recent advances in systemic targeted therapy for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.’
Nonmelanoma skin cancers comprise of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), Merkel cell carcinoma, adnexal tumors, dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, angiosarcoma, and cutaneous lymphoma.
Contrary to BCC and SCC, the other tumors are relatively rare. The advances recently made on the therapies available for these rare tumors were outside the scope of our article [Citation1].
However, similar to BCC and SCC, treatment of the above mentioned rare tumors is currently changing, as pointed out by Lewis and colleagues. Targeted therapy, but also immunotherapy, will probably become a part of treatment options of ‘real-world patients,’ outside clinical trials in the near future (i.e. avelumab and pembrolizumab for the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma) [Citation2,Citation3].
Although most advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphomas are currently incurable, the newly available therapies seem to hold the promise of changing patients’ outcomes.
Intense investigation is currently being done in this field involving monoclonal antibodies and proteasome inhibitors among others. This exciting ongoing investigation is, in our opinion, very well described and summarized in the submitted letter.
Undoubtedly, further multicenter and multinational clinical investigations are required in order to generate evidence-based treatment strategies for these rare cutaneous malignancies.
Declaration of interest
T Amaral reports grants from Roche, grants from Bristol-Myers Squib, grants from Merck Sharp & Dohme, outside the submitted work. C Garbe reports grants and personal fees from Novartis, grants and personal fees from Roche, during the conduct of the study; personal fees from Amgen, grants and personal fees from Bristol-Myers Squibb, personal fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme, personal fees from Philogen, outside the submitted work. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
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References
- Amaral T, Garbe C. Non-melanoma skin cancer: new and future synthetic drug treatments. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2017;18(7):689–699.
- Kaufman HL, Russell J, Hamid O, et al. Avelumab in patients with chemotherapy-refractory metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma: a multicentre, single-group, open-label, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2016;17(10):1374–1385.
- Nghiem PT, Bhatia S, Lipson EJ, et al. PD-1 blockade with pembrolizumab in advanced Merkel-cell carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(26):2542–2552.