DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000364227.70050.fe
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Issn Print: 0276-2234
Publication Date: 2009/11/10
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Excerpt
While the results are early, the late-breaking presentation on the experimental agent, PLX4032, was met with enthusiasm, due to the lack of effective therapies for patients with metastatic melanoma.
In presenting the results, Paul B. Chapman, MD, Attending Physician on the Melanoma/Sarcoma Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, noted that the current median progression-free survival time for a patient with metastatic melanoma is less than two or three months, with an average survival of less than a year.
The report comes at a time of great interest in the use of targeted agents for advanced melanoma. In one recent study, for example, adding sorafenib, an oral kinase inhibitor, to dacarbazine extended progression-free survival times in patients with advanced melanoma, compared with dacarbazine alone.
Also at the ECCO-ESMO meeting, US researchers reported that the vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor bevacizumab showed promise for the treatment of advanced melanoma patients, although it failed to improve overall survival times.
In addition, Belgium researchers reported that the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib improved outcomes in one-third of patients with advanced malignant melanoma who had failed to respond to dacarbazine-based chemotherapy.
Additionally, German researchers reported that patterns of ultrasound signals may help identify whether cancer has metastasized and whether melanoma patients need surgery.
