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New study drug shows 63% reduction in deaths after 6 months in patients with metastatic melanoma
MedPage Today
CHICAGO — Patients with metastatic melanoma had an “astounding” 63% reduction in the risk of death when treated with an investigational agent that targets a mutation found in about half of the tumors, data from a 6-month large international trial showed.
Treatment with the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib improved progression-free survival (PFS) by 74%. Analysis of six-month overall survival (OS) showed a 20% absolute difference between patients treated with vemurafenib versus dacarbazine.
Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer. Patients in the study had melanoma that had metastasized — spread to other parts of the body.
Though follow up is brief, the results already make a case for vemurafenib as the comparator for future trials of new agents for advanced melanoma, Paul. B. Chapman, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.
“The median follow up was only three months, yet the hazard ratio for death was 0.37 in favor of vemurafenib,” Chapman said in an interview with MedPage Today. “That’s an astounding difference that is almost never seen in oncology trials.
