OCT 16, 2013 3:00 PM PDT

Recent Developments in the treatment of Melanoma

C.E. Credits: CE
Speaker
  • Adil Daud, MD

    Director, Melanoma Clinical Research, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
    BIOGRAPHY

Abstract

While Melanoma is very curable and treatable when detected early, late stage melanoma has had a very poor outcome. In 2013, it is estimated that over 80,000 patients in the US will develop melanoma and 8,000 patients will die of this disease. Until 2011, the choices for the treatment of advanced melanoma included only chemotherapy of the immune cytokine, IL-2. Neither of these options was proven to prolong survival and neither worked very frequently (Response Rates ~15%). Recently, however, there have been 2 major advances in melanoma. One has been the discovery of highly specific BRAF inhibitors that can produce responses in 50-80% of patients with BRAF mutant melanoma. These patients constitute a sizable fraction of melanoma patients (50%) so can benefit a lot of patients. Another important advance has been the finding that immune checkpoint inhibitors such as ipilimumab (anti CTLA4 antibody) or anti-PD-1 antibodies can result in long lasting responses in a larger fraction of patients. Together, these and other drugs in the pipeline promise to transform the landscape of melanoma care in the next few years.


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OCT 16, 2013 3:00 PM PDT

Recent Developments in the treatment of Melanoma

C.E. Credits: CE


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