GlaxoSmithKline is running a placebo controlled study to examine the benefit to late stage melanoma patients of combined therapies. They are testing “BRAF blocker dabrafenib and MEK inhibitor trametinib in patients whose BRAF V600E mutation-positive melanoma has been surgically removed.”

Roche/Genentech is also testing combination therapy with “MEK inhibitor GDC-0973 from its partner Exelixis ($EXEL) and its approved BRAF inhibitor Zelboraf.”

Some patients on these drugs, dabrafenib and trametinib, have developed another skin cancer, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

…patients on the combo lived 9.4 months without their cancer worsening compared with 5.8 months in the dabrafenib-only group.

This article from a San Diego area dermatologist highlights the latest incidence of melanoma in young women between the ages of 18 and 21. The increases are attributed to the increasing use of tanning beds, especially the newer high-pressure lamps may get as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to what they get from natural sun. The author also introduces new research data about a green tea benefit for treating epidermoid carcinoma and melanoma.

The study results were:

“Originally published in the medical journal Nanomedicine, scientists created a cell with EGCg and transferrin (a naturally occurring protein that binds to the surface of cancer cells), and applied it directly to tumours. In both studies, 40% of tumours vanished; 30% of tumours in epidermoid carcinoma cases shrank considerably; and 20% of melanoma cases dwindled following the green tea treatment.

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The price of melanoma therapy could soon be slashed thanks to a new delivery system developed by US firm OncoSec.

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This article discusses the issues surrounding clinical trial research design for ‘personalized medicine focusing on patient subpopulations‘.

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This provides results of a clinical trial of veliparib combined with temozolomide(TMZ) in treating Stage III – Stage IV metastatic melanoma. The study reports ‘nearly doubled the numerical median progression-free survival (PFS) compared to TMZ alone, but that these differences were not statistically significant.’

The trial enrolled 346 patients to ‘a three-arm, double-blind, placebo-controlled study comparing the efficacy of 20 mg or 40 mg veliparib + TMZ to placebo + TMZ in prolonging progression-free survival (PFS).‘

The combined treatment was well tolerated by the study population and study of sub-populations continues.

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This article reports on retrospective analysis of the disease specifics of melanoma in children vs. young adults. The researchers found that children with melanoma were, overall, more likely than adults with the disease to have metastases in the lymph nodes surrounding the tumor, known as sentinel lymph nodes.

Because melanoma remains relatively rare in children — less than 4 percent of cases occur in pediatric patients — both diagnosis and treatment can be dangerously delayed in this group, experts say.

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This is  a new melanoma detection technology using laser light and sound to produce 3-D images of melanoma lesions. This technology is known as ‘photoacoustic tomography’. The produced images promise to assist the surgeon in removal of the diseased tissue.

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This article discusses the creation of The Immunotherapeutics Program at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center is directed by Michael I. Nishimura, PhD,  principal investigator of a new five-year, $16.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute.

This offers patients in the Midwest immunotherapy options using the patients own lymphocytes to attack the melanoma metastases. The first trial will be a Phase I program for 15 patients.

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