BCD-217 (melanoma drug)

2024: Product Announcement

Russian scientists presented the results of a study of a new drug for the treatment of resectable melanoma, which demonstrates an effectiveness of about 40%. This became known on October 1, 2024.

As forwarded by Medvestnik, the BCD-217 product developed by the company BIOCAD is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies: anti-CTLA-4 (nurulimab) and anti-PD-1 (prolgolimab). In phase III clinical trials, 38.6% of patients treated with neoadjuvant BCD-217 therapy had a complete or near complete pathomorphological response.

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Freepik

The study was conducted by scientists from the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, I.P. Pavlov First St. Petersburg State Medical University and Minsk City Clinical Cancer Center. The objective was to assess the possibility of rejection of cervical lymph node lymphodissection following neoadjuvant BCD-217 therapy in resectable stage III melanoma.

The study involved 108 patients divided into two groups. One group received BCD-217 as two infusions three weeks apart, the other underwent cervical lymph node excision followed by adjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab.

The results showed that only 7% of patients treated with BCD-217 experienced radiological progression of the disease. Adverse effects of any degree were detected in 63.6% of patients, and severe effects in 7.3%. Importantly, third-degree immune-mediated adverse events occurred in only 1.8% of participants.

The researchers concluded that two BCD-217 injections may be sufficient to avoid cervical lymphodissection without the risk of developing severe immune-mediated adverse events. Responders continued to receive adjuvant prolgolimab for a year.^[1]

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