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.