Cancer is so unstoppable because it is constantly mutating, invading, intruding upon and destroying adjacent tissues. Skin cancer, or advanced melanoma, is no different. However, a new drug tested recently in the United Kingdom called RG7204, a B-Raf enzyme inhibitor being developed by Roche Worldwide and Plexxikon corporations, seeks out and blocks the mutated gene while causing malignant tumors to shrink in 70% of cases of clinical trial.

Dr Lesley Walker from Cancer Research UK comments on the study conducted on 680 patients at the Royal Mardsen Hospital in London:

“There are very few options for patients with advanced melanoma, so these results are really encouraging. The drug is not yet licensed and unavailable to patients not on a clinical trial, but we hope that these results will change this situation very rapidly.”

Rates of melanoma are rising faster than any other common cancer. World-wide, doctors diagnose about 160,000 new cases of melanoma annually. The diagnosis is more frequent in women than in men and is particularly common among Caucasians living in sunny climates, with high rates of incidence in Australia, New Zealand, North America, and northern Europe. According to a WHO report about 48,000 melanoma related deaths occur worldwide per year.

This new drug targets a specific faulty mutated BRAF protein gene which is present in around half of all melanoma cases. Mutations in the BRAF gene can cause disease in two ways. First, mutations can be inherited and cause birth defects. Second, mutations can appear later in life and cause cancer, as an oncogene.

More than 30 mutations of the BRAF gene associated with human cancers have been identified. The frequency of B-raf mutations varies widely in human cancers from more than 80% in melanomas and nevi, to as little as 0-18% in other tumors, such as 1-3% in lung cancers and 5% in colorectal cancer.

Life expectancy amongst patients treated was significantly longer than those taking standard chemotherapy. Study participants who received RG7204 lived longer and also lived longer without their disease getting worse compared to participants who received dacarbazine, the current standard of care. RG7204 is a potential first-in-class medicine designed to selectively inhibit the mutated B-raf protein found in about half of all cases of metastatic melanoma, the most aggressive and deadliest form of skin cancer.

Hal Barron M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Head, Global Product Development for Roche Worldwide says:

“For the first time, a personalized investigational medicine, RG7204, has shown a significant survival benefit in metastatic melanoma. This is an important advance for people with the B-raf V600 mutation-positive form of the disease who have had extremely limited treatment options.”

Source: Roche Worldwide

Written by Sy Kraft, B.A.