Cancer immunotherapy has been firmly established as a standard of care for patients with advanced and metastatic melanoma.,Therapeutic outcomes in clinical trials have resulted in the approval of 11 new drugs and/or combination regimens for patients with melanoma.,However, prospective data to support evidence-based clinical decisions with respect to the optimal schedule and sequencing of immunotherapy and targeted agents, how best to manage emerging toxicities and when to stop treatment are not yet available.,To address this knowledge gap, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Melanoma Task Force developed a process for consensus recommendations for physicians treating patients with melanoma integrating evidence-based data, where available, with best expert consensus opinion.,The initial consensus statement was published in 2013, and version 2.0 of this report is an update based on a recent meeting of the Task Force and extensive subsequent discussions on new agents, contemporary peer-reviewed literature and emerging clinical data.,The Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) clinical practice guidelines were used as a basis for consensus development with an updated literature search for important studies published between 1992 and 2017 and supplemented, as appropriate, by recommendations from Task Force participants.,The Task Force considered patients with stage II-IV melanoma and here provide consensus recommendations for how they would incorporate the many immunotherapy options into clinical pathways for patients with cutaneous melanoma.,These clinical guidleines provide physicians and healthcare providers with consensus recommendations for managing melanoma patients electing treatment with tumor immunotherapy.,The online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-018-0362-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Immunotherapy targeting immune checkpoint molecules, programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and PD-ligand 1 (PD-L1), using therapeutic antibodies has been widely used for some human malignancies in the last 5 years.,A costimulatory receptor, PD-1, is expressed on T cells and suppresses effector functions when it binds to its ligand, PD-L1.,Aberrant PD-L1 expression is reported in various human cancers and is considered an immune escape mechanism.,Antibodies blocking the PD-1/PD-L1 axis induce antitumour responses in patients with malignant melanoma and other cancers.,In dogs, no such clinical studies have been performed to date because of the lack of therapeutic antibodies that can be used in dogs.,In this study, the immunomodulatory effects of c4G12, a canine-chimerised anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, were evaluated in vitro, demonstrating significantly enhanced cytokine production and proliferation of dog peripheral blood mononuclear cells.,A pilot clinical study was performed on seven dogs with oral malignant melanoma (OMM) and two with undifferentiated sarcoma.,Objective antitumour responses were observed in one dog with OMM (14.3%, 1/7) and one with undifferentiated sarcoma (50.0%, 1/2) when c4G12 was given at 2 or 5 mg/kg, every 2 weeks. c4G12 could be a safe and effective treatment option for canine cancers.