Clinical practice guidelines of the French Association for Supportive Care in Cancer and the French Society for Psycho-oncology: refusal of treatment by adults afflicted with cancer

Uveal Melanoma: Refusal of Treatment

Purpose

This study aimed to explore factors for refusing treatment in patients diagnosed with uveal melanoma and their subsequent clinical course.

Methods

This study included patients with uveal melanoma who refused standard of care treatment. Patient-reported reasons and pre-existing mental health diagnoses were assessed. The sociodemographic profile was compared with the controls. Ocular survival, metastasis-free survival (MFS), and overall survival (OS) were calculated.

Results

Nine patients with uveal melanoma declined ocular treatment (plaque brachytherapy, n = 7 [78%]; enucleation, n = 2 [22%]). The choroidal melanomas were small (n = 1 [11%]), medium (n = 5 [56%]), and large (n = 3 [33%]) in size (COMS criteria). The sociodemographic profile of the study patients was not different from those that accepted treatment. One patient (11%) had pre-existing mental health diagnosis. Five patients (56%) eventually accepted treatment following an average delay of 19 months (range: 4-55 months) due to neovascular glaucoma or severe vision loss. MFS could not be ascertained, and OS was 67% (6/9) at 4.2 years of follow-up (mean).

Conclusions

Refusal of initial recommended treatment is associated with poor ocular survival. The small sample size did not allow for an evaluation of the impact on survival.

Biomarkers of immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer

Immunotherapy has markedly improved the survival rate of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and has introduced a new era in lung cancer treatment. However, not all patients with lung cancer benefit from checkpoint blockade, and some suffer from notable immunotoxicities. Thus, it is crucial to identify potential biomarkers suitable for screening the population that may benefit from immunotherapy. Based on the current clinical trials, the aim of the present study was to review the biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibition, as well as other effective, invalid and hyperprogression markers that may have the potential to better predict responders to immunotherapy among patients with NSCLC. All these biomarkers may be incorporated into the predictive utility of bio-score systems and decision-making algorithms, to better guide the application of immunotherapy in the clinical setting.