Researchers will present studies of three promising melanoma therapies today, part of a wave of new treatments for the most aggressive forms of the disease.
None of the new therapies are cures for melanoma.
But a fraction of patients see rapid improvement in their condition, with dramatic shrinkage of their tumors, says F. Stephen Hodi, director of the melanoma center at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Hodi, who studied a drug called ipilimumab, will discuss his findings in Chicago today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
The Food and Drug Administration approved ipilumumab, sold under the brand name Yervoy, in 2011. Yervoy, the first new drug for melanoma to be approved in more than a decade, helped patients live a median of 10 months, four months longer than those who were given an alternative experimental therapy.
STORY: New drugs improve options for melanoma patients
In a study of 245 melanoma patients, Hodi found that adding an immune stimulant, called GM-CSF, makes Yervoy even more effective.
About 68% of patients who received the combination therapy survived one year, compared with 51% of those given Yervoy alone, the study says.
Yervoy can sometimes overstimulate the immune system, causing serious or even
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