Novel therapy shows promise for high-risk skin cancer patients: Wide Bay doctor

Bundaberg, Queensland – The results of an international Phase III trial run locally in Wide Bay and the Gold Coast show that offering immunotherapy after surgery and radiation therapy can stop skin cancer from returning in high-risk patients.

Australia continues to be known as the skin cancer capital of the world and Queensland has the highest rate of skin cancer in the country. It is estimated that 2 in 3 Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetimeⁱⁱ.

GenesisCare Bundaberg’s Radiation Oncologist Dr Gerry Adams who recruited local patients from Wide Bay and co-authored a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said: “The trial results show 87% of patients were disease free for two years after use of the immunotherapy drug in combination with usual treatments.ⁱⁱⁱ The results are potentially practice changing and may lead to new treatment methods for patients with high-risk cutaneous squamous cell cancer.”

“Immunotherapy is a rapidly evolving field of cancer treatment. We are researching more ways to use immunotherapy in different types of cancer, at different stages, both alone and in combination with other cancer treatments. We already understood the benefits of this immunotherapy drug in skin cancer patients, where the cancer had spread and was not curable with surgery or radiation therapy. This study shows that for patients where the cancer has not spread widely, but who are at high risk of it coming back, that risk of disease recurrence is reduced by adding this immunotherapy treatment earlier.”

“This is the first international Phase III trial to run in the Wide Bay region. Our researchers have been involved in the trial since its early days in 2019 all the way through to 2024, when enrolment to the trial closed. We’re all proud to be a part of a local team that’s able to offer access to international clinical trials and increase treatment options for local patients.”

“This trial also gives us important information about the safety of the drug. We already know a lot about the side effects of immunotherapy and how to manage them. The good news about this trial is that the assessment of safety was as expected. Some patients experienced side effects, with some stopping the treatment because of that. The safety profile results were in the range that we would expect with this type of treatment,” said Dr Adams.

The Phase III clinical trial known as the C-POST study, investigated the novel use of an immunotherapy drug after surgery and radiation therapy in patients with cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma, a cancer that affects the skin. Immunotherapy increases the body’s own defence mechanisms to find and kill cancer cells.

More than 400 trial patients received regular intravenous infusions of the immunotherapy drug (cemiplimab) or placebo over a 12-month period and continue to attend long-term follow-up appointments with the research team. With participating clinics in Bundaberg, Fraser Coast, Southport and Tugun, GenesisCare was an important local contributor to this international study with its public hospital partner Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service and enrolled 24 local patients.

The research paper ‘Adjuvant Cemiplimab or Placebo in High-Risk Cutaneous Squamous-Cell Carcinoma’ is available online: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2502449