Researchers have unleashed the immune system to attack skin cancer and have made important strides against melanoma, reveal the results of three clinical trials released Monday.
Melanoma - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment & Prevention
Melanoma of the skin is a dangerous type of skin cancer that usually appears as a cancerous mole due to exposure to the sun’s damaging UV rays.
Melanoma of the skin is a dangerous type of skin cancer that usually appears as a cancerous mole due to exposure to the sun’s damaging UV rays.
Three years after treatment, the survival rate was 46.5 percent in the ipilimumab group and 34.8 percent in the placebo group.
Ipilimumab has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of inoperable stage IV melanoma. It works by disarming the tumor's defense against the immune system.
Red Hair Pigment May Increase Risk of Melanoma, Skin Cancer
Recent animal studies suggest that pigment responsible for red hair in fair-skinned people might play a role in triggering skin cancer.
Recent animal studies suggest that pigment responsible for red hair in fair-skinned people might play a role in triggering skin cancer.
"This trial with ipilimumab is the first to show we may be able to give these drugs earlier in the course of disease, where they can do more good and potentially cure more patients."
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Ipilimumab With Dacarbazine Improves Survival in Metastatic Melanoma
Ipilimumab in combination with dacarbazine improves survival in metastatic melanoma: Results of a Phase III study.
Ipilimumab in combination with dacarbazine improves survival in metastatic melanoma: Results of a Phase III study.
However, researchers cautioned that side effects were "considerable," and included five people who died and were classed as "treatment-related deaths," according to a summary of the study provided to the media.
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Rare Melanoma on Soles and Palms More Likely to Come Back
A type of melanoma that affects dark skinned Asians and Hispanics and attacks the palms and soles is more likely to recur than other types of melanoma, a study has found
A type of melanoma that affects dark skinned Asians and Hispanics and attacks the palms and soles is more likely to recur than other types of melanoma, a study has found
Another clinical trial, this one an early phase I trial involving 411 patients with advanced melanoma, showed promising results using a Merck-made therapy called a PD-1 targeting antibody MK-3475.
The Food and Drug Administration has granted breakthrough therapy designation for the agent, which stimulates the immune system in a different way than Yervoy.
A total of 34 percent of patients in the study showed some response to the treatment, meaning that their tumors grew smaller.
In all, 69 percent of patients were alive after one year.
"These are early data, but they tell us something really important," said lead study author Antoni Ribas, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Eight percent of patients experienced serious side effects related to the treatment, but just four percent dropped out of the study as a result.
A third study on 94 patients with inoperable melanoma showed that a combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab, both made by Bristol Myers-Squibb, allowed a midpoint survival of three and a half years, or double what previous studies using each drug alone had shown.
"Just a few years ago, median survival for patients diagnosed with advanced melanoma was as little as a year or less, and only approximately 20-25 percent survived two years," said lead study author Mario Sznol, professor of medical oncology at Yale University.
"So it's truly remarkable that we're seeing a median survival over three years in this trial," he said.
Long term data was available for 53 patients, of whom 22 (41 percent) responded to the treatment and nine (17 percent) had complete remissions.
"While we are encouraged by what we are seeing with these two drugs together, this trial was small, so a randomized phase III trial will be important to validate our initial results," said Sznol.
Source-AFP
