The introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors and the combined use of BRAF and MEK inhibitors dramatically changed the treatment landscape of advanced melanoma over the last decade. The success of these agents in the advanced setting formed the basis to also evaluate these drugs in less advanced disease stages. During ESMO 2018 updates were given on the adjuvant use of dabrafenib and trametinib in resected stage III melanoma patients. In addition to this, results were presented on the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the neo-adjuvant setting. In the advanced melanoma setting, the most important data came from the four-year survival update of the CheckMate 067 trial and the presentation of the Keynote-022 study, in which the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab was used in combination with dabrafenib and trametinib in the first-line treatment of BRAF-mutation positive advanced melanoma.
