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Stage IV melanoma: What's your experience with immunotherapy?

Cancer | Last Active: Aug 12, 2021 | Replies (32)

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@mlenney167

When you say treatment has to be discontinued, does that mean postponed until the diarrhea is under control, or totally stopped? And then a different treatment plan would be used?

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Replies to "When you say treatment has to be discontinued, does that mean postponed until the diarrhea is..."

Totally stopped per the guidelines. If the diarrhea is that severe it poses more of a risk to the patient then potential benefit. It is unfortunate when this has to happen especially given immunotherapy is the only treatment option available in melanoma if the patient doesn’t have any molecular mutations. But when these drugs were studied in clinical trials if the diarrhea was unable to be controlled with low dose steroids then it could have potentially life threatening consequences such as bowel perforation, not to mention the impact of quality of life for the patient.