A Phase II, Multicentre, Non-Comparative, Randomised Controlled Trial of Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy and Immunotherapy Versus Immunotherapy Alone in Patients With Treatment Naïve Oligometastatic Extracranial Melanoma
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the addition of radiotherapy to the standard immunotherapy drugs that are given to patients with advanced or metastatic melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body. Radiotherapy uses x-rays to target and kill melanoma cells and immunotherapy works by activating the body's own immune system to seek out and fight melanoma cells. Both of these treatments are commonly given to patients with advanced melanoma and other cancers. Both treatments are usually given separately but can also be given together. The aim of this research is to find out if giving radiotherapy and immunotherapy together is better than giving immunotherapy alone. The type of radiotherapy to be used in this project is known as 'stereotactic' body radiotherapy or SBRT (also known as stereotactic body ablative radiotherapy, SABR). SBRT targets the radiation very precisely at the metastatic deposits in the body. This method protects the healthy areas near the melanoma. SBRT works by delivering a high dose of radiation precisely to the areas of melanoma which causes the melanoma cells to break apart and eventually die. SBRT is given in 'fractions' which means the high dose is given in small measures over several days, depending on the number and size of metastases.
• Female or male patients, age 18 or older
• Willing to provide signed informed consent
• Life expectancy \> 6 months
• First presentation of AJCC Stage IV (any N, M1a, M1b, M1c), histologically confirmed cutaneous, acral or unknown primary melanoma with one to five extracranial metastases detected on CT and whole body PET-CT, and considered unresectable
• A primary lesion and / or up to 4 in-transit metastases(is) (ITM) in addition to distant metastases(is) are permitted and will be counted in the maximum number of permitted baseline lesions
• Prior surgery for symptomatic disease (e.g. small bowel obstruction) for this first presentation of Stage IV melanoma is permitted, provided the total number of remaining extracranial metastases is ≤ 5 (NOT including the resected lesion). No more than one excised metastatic lesion is permitted
• At least one metastasis should be measurable as a target lesion per RECIST version 1.1
• No evidence of cerebral metastases on MRI brain (CT brain is acceptable if there is contraindication to MRI)
• All lesions can be treated with a minimum SBRT biologically effective dose (BED) of 48Gy
• Able to tolerate treatment with immunotherapy as determined by the medical oncologist
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-2
• Women of childbearing potential (WOCBP) must have a negative serum pregnancy test within 7 days of randomisation