Case Report: Exceptional Response to Avelumab After Failure of Electrochemotherapy in a Patient With Rapidly Progressive, PD-L1-Negative Merkel Cell Carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: This case report shows, for the first time, a patient experiencing a complete response after one dose of avelumab following extensive disease progression with prior electrochemotherapy (ECT) treatment. We suggest that ECT may help to establish a tumor microenvironment favorable to immunotherapy. Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a highly aggressive skin cancer with seldom durable chemotherapy responses. ECT has recently emerged as a potential treatment option for several malignancies, including MCC. Avelumab, an anti-programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) monoclonal antibody, became the first approved treatment for patients with metastatic MCC. ECT has been shown to activate the immune response, but it is still unknown how ECT may affect patient's response to subsequent immunotherapy. We repo

SUBMITTER: Torchio M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8248546 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature