Immunotherapy Drugs Slow Skin
Cancer That Has Spread to the Brain
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Aug. 22, 2018
A new study offers a glint of hope to people in a desperate situation: Patients
with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, that has spread to the
brain.
A combination of two drugs that activate the immune system shrank brain
tumors in many melanoma patients and prolonged life in a study of 94 people
at 28 medical centers in the United States. The drugs were ipilimumab (brand
name Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo), and they belong to a class called
checkpoint inhibitors.
Melanoma is more likely than most cancers to spread to the brain, and once it
gets there, fewer than 20 percent of patients survive one year with traditional
treatments, according to Dr. Hussein A. Tawbi, the first author of the study
and an associate professor of melanoma medical oncology at the MD
Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/health/melanoma-immunotherapy-braintumors.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage