Until last year, it had been 13 years since the [USA} FDA last approved a drug to treat advanced melanoma, a brutal skin cancer that can kill patients within sin months. But two new options - with jaw - droping results were approves last year. The sight of tumours shrinking in a matter of weeks in patients on the drug PLX4032 spurred "pinch me" moments for the researchers, the New York Times reported. Another drug, ipilimumab, produced equally impressive benifits.
THE SIGHT OF TUMOURS SHRINKING IN A MATTER OF WEEKS SPURRED "PINCH ME" MOMENTS FOR RESEARCHERS STUDYING TWO DRUGS.
PLX4032 zeroes in on a mutation found in many melanoma tumours, says Allan C. Halpern, MD, vice president of the Skin Cancer Foundation New York and chief of dermatology at Memorial Sloan - Kettering Cancer Center. In early tests, it shrank tumours in a whooping 81 percent of advanced melanoma (no more than 20 percent typically respond to current drugs). Ipilimumab uses a broader approach, taking the brakes off the body's own immune system so it van fight cancer more aggressively. In one study. ipilimumab nearly doubled the number of patients surviving one year.
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