Researchers discover potential new melanoma treatment, giving hope to patients
Source: University News, September 2022
HMRI and University of Newcastle researchers have discovered that treating patients who have late-stage treatment resistant melanoma with a combination of two existing drugs significantly increases their survival times.
Led by Professor Nikola Bowden and Dr Andre van der Westhuizen from HMRI’s Drug Repurposing and Medicines Research program, the project’s findings have been published in the American Association for Cancer Research journal Cancer Research Communications.
The drug repurposing trial focused on patients with end stage melanoma whose cancers had become resistant to frontline immunotherapy treatment, a class of drugs known as Immune Checkpoint Inhibiters (ICB). ICBs interfere with a cancer cells’ ability to ‘hide’ from the body’s immune system allowing a patient’s own body to fight the cancer.