A drug for melanoma doubles the survival time

A new drug for advanced skin cancer, or metastatic melanoma has shown almost double the median survival time, according to a study of more than 130 patients, researchers said Wednesday.

Manufactured by Genentech, a U.S. subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, the drug was approved by Zelboraf Control Agency U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2011, making it the first new treatment for melanoma in 13 years.

The most recent study, an intermediate stage of tests whose results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed 132 patients at 13 medical centers in the U.S. and Australia. Subjects in the study survived an average of 15.9 months, when the typical survival among people with melanoma that has spread to other organs is about nine months, according to researchers.

"We knew that this drug would reduce melanoma in a large proportion of patients and that was better than chemotherapy," said lead author, Antoni Ribas, professor of hematology and oncology and a researcher at the Jonsson Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles.

"Until now we did not know that patients who take Zelboraf lived longer."

The drug can be used to treat half of patients with metastatic melanoma, or about 4,000 patients a year in the U.S., researchers said.

Zelboraf, a pill taken twice a day, works by blocking a protein involved in cell growth in patients with advanced melanoma whose tumors show BRAF V600E gene mutation called.

About 53% of patients with this mutation see their tumors reduced by over 30%, while an additional 30% of patients see their tumors decrease but not both. The drug did not cause a response in 14% of patients.

Another drawback is that patients seem to develop resistance to treatment over time, but scientists are trying to find ways to prevent that from happening, said Ribas.

Patients with advanced melanoma have few options for effective treatment with less than 10% showing a response to other treatments available, the study authors said.

According to the National Cancer Institute, 68,130 new cases of melanoma were diagnosed in the U.S. in 2.010 and about 8,700 people died from the disease.

According to the World Health Organization, causes skin cancer each year 66,000 deaths worldwide, 80% of which involve melanomas.

One patient had a wound following a biopsy which was submitted to determine if you have skin cancer on 15 June 2.011 in Miami.