lbd

Hi GM,

I was on Mektovi/Braftovi for nearly two years and tolerated it well. The first four months my treated was Mek/Braf alone and I had very positive results. Skin nodules that you could feel and see disappeared in days; and scans showed a dramatic reduction in metastases. (I started with 13 brain metastases, two of them over 20mm, and after a few months I was down to 4 metastases with the largest around 5mm.)

I later started Ipi/Nivo, but I stayed on Mek/Braf throughout my Ipi/Nivo cycle and for another 18 months in combination with Nivo infusions. The only real side effect I had on Mek/Braf were skin rashes and mild fatigue. (I had more serious side effects with Ipi, but that is another story.) It is hard for me to comment on the effectiveness of Mek/Braf longer term, because once I started immunotherapy it was hard to distinguish the effect of the immuno versus the targeted therapy.

But at least in my case, the Braf/Mek combo alone did not make me sick — just itchy.

Hope that is helpful.

Burton

Hi Misty, I have been taking Mektovi/Braftovi since February 2019 with positive results and pretty minimal side effects. For me, it worked almost immediately — the handful of subcutaneous lumps that had clued me into my recurrence disappeared over the course of two weeks and scans after 4-6 weeks showed that my brain mets and lung mets had shrunk in half. Overall it stabilized the progress of the disease (and the symptoms associated with it) in a month or two. In my experience, the results are pretty amazing. I have been on it for pushing 15 months and stayed with the Braf/Mek combo through four cycles of Ipi/Nivo and follow up nivo. I understand from some of the literature that this length of taking Braf/Mek is a little out of the ordinary, since some people develop a resistance in 6 months or so. But I have not yet achieved NED and the side effects for me have been so mild that we have stuck with the treatment “just in case.” The worst of it has been spikes of fever that hit about once every few months — kind of out of the blue — and last no more than a day. I also experienced some minor skin rashes that topical lotions controlled effectively. (Unlike the more serious rashes I experienced with Ipi/Nivo.) For me, the combo was effective without significant adverse effects. Best of luck with your treatments.

Burton