In the primary analysis of the ERIVANCE BCC trial, vismodegib, the first US Food and Drug Administration-approved Hedgehog pathway inhibitor, showed objective response rates (ORRs) by independent review facility (IRF) of 30% and 43% in metastatic basal cell carcinoma (mBCC) and locally advanced BCC (laBCC), respectively.,ORRs by investigator review were 45% (mBCC) and 60% (laBCC).,Herein, we present long-term safety and final investigator-assessed efficacy results in patients with mBCC or laBCC.,One hundred four patients with measurable advanced BCC received oral vismodegib 150 mg once daily until disease progression or intolerable toxicity.,The primary end point was IRF-assessed ORR.,Secondary end points included ORR, duration of response (DOR), progression-free survival, overall survival (OS), and safety.,At data cutoff (39 months after completion of accrual), 8 patients were receiving the study drug (69 patients in survival follow-up).,Investigator-assessed ORR was 48.5% in the mBCC group (all partial responses) and 60.3% in the laBCC group (20 patients had complete response and 18 patients had partial response).,ORRs were comparable across patient subgroups, including aggressive histologic subtypes (eg, infiltrative BCC).,Median DOR was 14.8 months (mBCC) and 26.2 months (laBCC).,Median OS was 33.4 months in the mBCC cohort and not estimable in the laBCC cohort.,Adverse events remained consistent with clinical experience.,Thirty-three deaths (31.7%) were reported; none were related to vismodegib.,This long-term update of the ERIVANCE BCC trial demonstrated durability of response, efficacy across patient subgroups, and manageable long-term safety of vismodegib in patients with advanced BCC.,This study was registered prospectively with Clinicaltrials.gov, number NCT00833417 on January 30, 2009.,The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-017-3286-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Treatment of uveal (intraocular) melanoma is aimed at prolonging life, if possible conserving the eye and useful vision.,About 50% of patients develop fatal metastatic disease despite successful eradication of the primary intraocular tumour.,The effect of ocular treatment on survival is unknown, because the same survival data from case series can be interpreted in different ways.,Treatment is therefore based on intuition and varies greatly between centres.,Randomised trials of treatment vs non-treatment of asymptomatic tumours are desirable but would be controversial, difficult, expensive and possibly inconclusive.,Strategies for coping with uncertainty are needed to avoid unethical care.