A Case of Vanishing Brain Metastasis in a Melanoma Patient on Nivolumab.

BACKGROUND

Melanoma is among the top three cancers to present with brain metastasis. The risk of brain metastases in advanced melanoma increases with disease duration. Cytotoxic chemotherapy does not have a significant role in the management of melanoma patients with brain metastases, neither alone nor in conjunction with radiation therapy.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

We herein discuss a case of a 66-year-old male diagnosed initially with stage III-B melanoma and underwent a wide local excision with a split thickness graft and sentinel lymph node biopsy, followed by adjuvant treatment with high-dose interferon.

RESULTS

On subsequent follow up he was found to have a brain lesion, which later on resolved after starting ipilumumab. Five to twenty percent of patients with melanoma of any stage develop cerebral metastases.

CONCLUSION

Immunotherapy modalities, ipilimumab has been shown to have activity against brain metastases.