Pyrexia is a frequent adverse event of BRAF/MEK-inhibitor combination therapy in patients with metastasized malignant melanoma (MM). The study's objective was to identify laboratory changes which might correlate with the appearance of pyrexia. Graphical visualization of time series of laboratory values suggested that a rise in C-reactive-protein, in parallel with a fall of leukocytes and thrombocytes, were indicative of pyrexia. Additionally, statistical analysis showed a significant correlation between lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and pyrexia. An algorithm based on these observations was designed using a deductive and heuristic approach in order to calculate a pyrexia score (PS) for each laboratory assessment in treated patients. The supplied data provides anonymized and normalized values for CRP, LDH, leukocyte and thrombocyte numbers and the respective pyrexia score of 44 patients without pyrexia and with pyrexia under dabrafenib plus trametiniob treatment. Pyrexia scores based on the four parameters  were statistically significantly higher in pyrexia patients, differentiated between groups and showed a significant predictive value for the diagnosis of pyrexia.

Data was collected retrospectively and has been anonymized. All indirect identifiers were removed and data collection time was only referred to as relative time from treatment start.

Laboratory values have been normalized and resulting values have been rounded for further anonymization.

Data can be viewed and modified using EXCEL. The proposed algorthm has been translated into an excel-calculation.