Surgical resection of metastatic renal cell carcinoma and melanoma after response to interleukin‐2‐based immunotherapy

Thirty‐one patients with disseminated melanoma or renal cell cancer (RCC) who had a limited relapse or persistent disease after a partial or complete response to interleukin‐2 (IL‐2)‐based immunotherapy underwent resection of progressing tumors or residual sites of disease. There were no surgery‐related deaths. The median time to disease progression after resection for patients with RCC (n = 16) and melanoma (n = 15) was 11 and 5 months, respectively. All patients with melanoma had tumor progression within 10 months of surgery. Seven of 16 patients with RCC were free of tumor progression 4 to 44 months after surgery. Three of 12 patients with RCC rendered disease‐free by surgery remain disease‐free after 2 years. These data suggest that surgical resection is a reasonable option in selected patients who have a relapse after responding to IL‐2‐based immunotherapy. Although this retrospective study could not determine the relative survival benefits of surgery and immunotherapy, it showed that resection of metastatic disease after a response to immunotherapy can result in significant disease‐free survival in patients with RCC but not melanoma.