Exciting Progress for Difficult-to-Treat Advanced Melanoma — What to Know About Biologic Drug Brenetafusp

The Latest on Biologic Drug, Brenetafusp

• An exciting biologic drug called brenetafusp is being studied, and showing real promise, in treating advanced cutaneous melanoma.
• Dr. Mohammad Dar, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Clinical Development at Immunocore, told SurvivorNet that early data suggests brenetafusp can significantly delay disease progression for patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma who have exhausted other treatment options.
• “The way that brenetafusp works is that it’s called a bispecific, so it has two ends,” Dr. Dar explained. “One end targets the cancer and then the other end connects to immune cells that are passing by and forms a bridge between the immune cell and the cancer cell. That bridge triggers the immune cell to kill the cancer cell.”
• In a phase I study, more than half of patients had their disease stop growing. “On average, the disease control lasted for about six months,” Dr. Dar explained.

Dr. Mohammad Dar , Chief Medical Officer and Head of Clinical Development at Immunocore, believes that cancer will become a chronic condition, one that you can live with and manage, in our lifetime. "In our lifetime, we will make cancer a chronic disease. We may not cure it, but we'll make it just like heart disease or diabetes, where patients will get treatments that will make their cancer not be a cause of death and they can carry on with their lives," Dr. Dar told SurvivorNet at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference, one of the largest gatherings of leaders in the cancer research industry. Among the drugs causing a lot of excitement in the industry is a biologic drug called brenetafusp — which is being studied for cutaneous melanoma.

What does the data show?

"The way that brenetafusp works is that it's called a bispecific, so it has two ends," Dr. Dar explained. "One end targets the cancer and then the other end connects to immune cells that are passing by and forms a bridge between the immune cell and the cancer cell. That bridge triggers the immune cell to kill the cancer cell." Dr. Dar's team presented data at this year's ASCO conference that demonstrated the drug could be beneficial for metastatic melanoma patients who had exhausted all other treatment options. In a small, phase I study, more than half of patients had their disease stop growing. "On average, the disease control lasted for about six months," Dr. Dar explained. "So about half a year in patients who typically have no other options." The next step, Dr. Dar said, is to test the drug in earlier stages of the disease.