Safety and efficacy of pembrolizumab in a patient with advanced melanoma on haemodialysis.

Patients with end-stage renal disease present with a distinct challenge in oncology. Many anticancer drugs and their metabolites are excreted by the kidney, but data to guide dose and schedule adjustments in renal dialysis are scant. Pembrolizumab is an anti-programmed cell death protein 1 monoclonal antibody proven to be effective in patients with metastatic melanoma. It has demonstrated promising results and was granted US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in September, 2014 for metastatic melanoma. It was additionally approved for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer by the FDA in October, 2015. We present the first case, to the best of our knowledge, of a patient with metastatic melanoma successfully treated with pembrolizumab while on haemodialysis. 2016 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.