A trial comparing 2 ways of giving dabrafenib and trametinib for advanced melanoma (INTERIM)

A total of 79 people with advanced melanoma joined this trial:

• 40 had treatment every day (continuous treatment)
• 39 had regular treatment breaks (intermittent treatment)

The research team looked at how long it was before the melanoma started to grow. They found it was:

• 10.7 months for those who had continuous treatment
• 8.5 months for those who had intermittent treatment

When they looked at how many people’s melanoma responded to the treatment, they found it was:

• nearly 8 out of 10 (77%) who had continuous treatment
• nearly 6 out of 10 (57%) who had intermittent treatment

They also looked at whether people had small pieces of genetic material from cancer cells in their blood. This is called circulating tumour DNA, or ctDNA. They found that people who had ctDNA in their blood before they started treatment did less well.

Quality of life
The research team looked at people’s quality of life  6 months after starting treatment. They found it was a little better in those having continuous treatment.

Side effects
The research team looked at how many people had side effects. They found it was higher in the continuous treatment group:

• nearly 9 out of 10 (88%) who had continuous treatment
• nearly 8 out of 10 (76%) who had intermittent treatment

Then they looked at how many people had more severe side effects. They found it was higher in the intermittent group:

• just over 4 out of 10 (42%) who had continuous treatment
• more than 5 out of 10 (53%) who had intermittent treatment

Conclusion
The research team concluded that having treatment breaks did not help dabrafenib and trametinib work better. This was for advanced melanoma that could not be removed or had spread to another part of the body. 

They suggest it could be useful for people who are having a lot of side effects from continuous treatment.

Sometimes trials show a different way of giving treatment isn’t useful for a particular type or stage of cancer. But these trials still add to our knowledge and understanding of cancer and how to treat it.

Where this information comes from    
We have based this summary on information from the research team. As far as we are aware, the information they sent us has not been reviewed independently peer reviewed  or published in a medical journal yet. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.