Skin cancer trial results 'exciting'

[Northerner]

The results of two international trials against advanced skin cancer have been hailed as "exciting and striking".

Both treatments, for advanced melanoma, are designed to enable the immune system to recognise and target tumours.

The findings were released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.

The experimental drugs, pembrolizumab and nivolumab, block the biological pathway cancers use to disguise themselves from the immune system.

Advanced melanoma - skin cancer which has spread to other organs - has proved very hard to treat.

Until a few years ago average survival was around six months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27674658

 

[Mrs Mad Ronin]

Glad to see progress 🙂

 

[Northerner]

Questions over the funding of miracle skin cancer 'cure'

A so-called miracle treatment for skin cancer has been called into question after it emerged that the NHS hospital involved with the trial conducted the study with the drug's own manufacturer.

Pembrolizumab attracted international coverage last week after a patient's tumours disappeared following treatment with the drug, which is manufactured by pharma giant Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD).

Warwick Steele, a 64-year-old who had advanced cancer, was said to have been cured after a six-month round of treatment with the experimental drug. It was part of a wider trial on advanced melanoma.

MSD, which has its headquarters in New Jersey, is expected to apply for a European licence for the drug. If successful, applications for use in the NHS in Scotland are inevitable.

Steele's doctor, Dr David Chao, from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We cannot say for certain that he has been cured, but he is doing very well. He was aware that without an effective treatment his survival prospects were not good - maybe months.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...-funding-of-miracle-skin-cancer-cure.24426156