Does complete response (CR) with systemic therapy (SRx) translate into long term survival in stage IV melanoma (MM)?

9043 Background: The impact of SRx on survival of patients (pts) with MM remains uncertain. We wanted to describe the pts with stage IV MM who had CRs, their Rx and its impact on survival.,The 567 chemo-naive pts with stage IV non-choroidal MM, excluding surgical CRs, were selected from 647 pts treated in 9 trials.,The median age was 48 years and 366 were males. ECOG P.S., was 0/1/2/3 in 274/213/58/22 and their stage was M1a/M1b/M1c in 76/99/392 pts respectively. Their # of involved visceral sites was 0/1/2/≥3 in 96/217/156/98 respectively. 196pts had Liver metastasis. The %CRs by Rx were 3.23/8.43/13.08 for CVD/C-paclitaxel-D (CRx, #217)/CVD-IFN ± tamoxifen (CIRx, #83)/CVD-IFN+IL-2 (BCRx, #267) respectively. The median survival by response (CR/no-CR) was 78/10.5 mos. for BCRx and 46.4/8.1 for non-BCRx respectively. The survival of BCRx pts was superior at 5 years (7.78% vs. 2%, p = 0.0018) and 10 years (5.99% vs. 0.33%, p = 0.00001) compared to non-BCRx pts. The overall, BCRx and non-BCRx (CRx + CIRx) results were as follows (see table ).,CR does translate into long-term survival and IL-2 based Rx gives CRs more often than other therapies. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.