Melanoma is not the most common form of skin cancer, but by far the deadliest overall. An estimated 68,130 new cases of melanoma were diagnosed in the United States during 2010 and about 8,700 people died from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute. Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a Bristol Myers Squibb drug called Yervoy (ipilimumab) to help with the treatment of those with this type of skin cancer when it is at its final, fatal stages.
Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the Office of Oncology Drug Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research stated:
“Late-stage melanoma is devastating, with very few treatment options for patients, none of which previously prolonged a patient’s life. Yervoy is the first therapy approved by the FDA to clearly demonstrate that patients with metastatic melanoma live longer by taking this treatment.”
Basically Yervoy, which is administered via injection, fights a molecule that intentionally slows or turns off the body’s defensive immune system, allowing cancer cells to run rampant. Yervoy may work by allowing the body’s immune system to recognize, target, and attack cells in melanoma tumors.
In tests, those who received the combination of Yervoy plus the vaccine or Yervoy alone lived an average of about 10 months, while those who received only the experimental vaccine lived an average of 6.5 months.
However, this new drug does not come without severe side effects in exchange for extended life. Due to the side effects associated with Yervoy, the therapy is being approved with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy to inform health care professionals about these serious risks. A medication guide will also be provided to patients to inform them about the therapy’s potential side effects.
Melanoma causes 75% of all skin care deaths. Worldwide, doctors diagnose about 160,000 new cases of melanoma yearly. 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.
There are several melanoma treatments being studied in clinical trials including combining chemotherapy and biological therapy. Combining chemotherapy and biological therapy drugs may increase the success of both of these treatments. However, combining treatments can make severe side effects more likely.
Also being reviewed are targeted therapies that interrupt a specific process in cancer cells in order to control cancer. For instance, targeted drugs designed to stop melanoma from attracting blood vessels have been tested. Melanoma needs blood vessels to deliver nutrients and it uses blood vessels to spread cancer cells throughout the body. A drug that stops this process could cause a melanoma to remain small and localized. In another approach, specific chemicals that stimulate cancer cells to grow rapidly could be inactivated.
Finally, vaccines for treating cancer are different from vaccines used to prevent diseases. Vaccine treatment for melanoma might involve injecting altered cancer cells into the body to draw the attention of the immune system.
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Written by Sy Kraft, B.A.