Successful treatment of unresectable recurrent cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the scalp with meningeal invasion with nivolumab monotherapy

Taku Fujimura; Yumi Kambayashi; Hisayuki Tono; Chinbing Lyu; Kentaro Ohuchi; Akira Hashimoto; Setsuya Aiba

doi:10.1111/dth.13672

Successful treatment of unresectable recurrent cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the scalp with meningeal invasion with nivolumab monotherapy

Dermatol Ther. 2020 Jul;33(4):e13672. doi: 10.1111/dth.13672. Epub 2020 Jun 16.

Authors

Taku Fujimura¹, Yumi Kambayashi¹, Hisayuki Tono¹, Chinbing Lyu¹, Kentaro Ohuchi¹, Akira Hashimoto¹, Setsuya Aiba¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Dermatology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.

PMID: 32449226
DOI: 10.1111/dth.13672

Abstract

Although the number of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) cases is increasing, the effectiveness of systemic therapy for the treatment of advanced cSCC is limited. Since cSCC possesses a high tumor mutation burden (TMB) compared to other cancer species, and since high TMB correlated with increased neoantigens and the efficacy of anti-PD1 antibodies (Abs) in various cancers, cSCC could be a target for anti-PD1 Abs monotherapy. In this report, we describe a case of unresectable recurrent cSCC of the scalp with meningeal invasion, but highly expressed programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), treated with nivolumab monotherapy.

Keywords: PD-1; PD-L1; cutaneous SCC; immunotherapy; nivolumab.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* / drug therapy
Humans
Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / drug therapy
Nivolumab / therapeutic use
Scalp
Skin Neoplasms* / drug therapy

Substances

Nivolumab