Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada is pleased to announce that Health Canada has approved Yervoy® (ipilimumab) as a first-line therapy in adults with unresectable or metastatic melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. This means that Canadians with newly diagnosed advanced melanoma, regardless of the subtype, will be eligible to receive the novel immunotherapy as their initial treatment.
MRV Research
Wistar and Penn Medicine collaborate on $12.1 million SPORE grant in melanoma
The Wistar Institute’s Meenhard Herlyn, D.V.M., D.Sc., is the principal investigator on a $12.1 million Special Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant, a prestigious National Cancer Institute collaborative grant that brings together researchers at Wistar and the University of Pennsylvania to develop new melanoma therapies. The goal of this SPORE is to translate fundamental laboratory discoveries into new therapeutics that will benefit patients of melanoma and other skin cancers.
Incidence of pediatric melanoma on the rise
Clinicians have to consider actions to avoid the potential for mortality if melanoma is suspected in pediatric cases, and they should be cognizant that pediatric melanoma cases represent a very heterogeneous group of patients, according to the chairman of the department of cutaneous oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida.
DARTMOUTH RESEARCH LINKS GENETIC MUTATION AND MELANOMA PROGRESSION.
Dartmouth researchers have found that the genetic mutation BRAFV600E , frequently found in metastatic melanoma, not only secretes a protein that promotes the growth of melanoma tumour cells, but can also modify the network of normal cells around the tumour to support the disease’s progression. Targeting this mutation with Vemurafenib reduces this interaction, and suggests possible new treatment options for melanoma therapy. They report on their findings in British Journal of Cancer.