A new clinical trial by MD Anderson, one of the world’s leading providers of cancer treatment, has revealed impressive results that provide a new approach to preoperative treatment for melanoma patients.
Results from the Phase II Phase II study of MD Anderson examined a combination of two drugs that inhibit BRAF and MEK pathways before and after surgery, showing that patients treated with both drugs benefited compare to an immediate surgery. This is a small study with few patients, but the results were so significant that the researchers closed the control group.
Between October 2014 and April 2016, 21 patients with BRAF mutated stage III melanoma patients were recruited for the study. Patients were divided into two groups with a 2: 1 ratio, with 7 patients receiving the standard treatment and 14 receiving adjuvant therapy with two drugs.
Seventy-one percent of the 14 melanoma patients treated with both drugs were free from their disease after a year and a half, meaning that their disease did not recur after a year and a half, while in the same period the time disease was repeated among all 7 patients in the control group.
will receive the treatment of both drugs before surgery. Patients who agreed not to undergo immediate surgery but to receive preoperative treatment in this macroscope, have earned!
The impressive results provide a rationale for further research examining the new approach to preoperative treatment of this disease. In addition, the study will recruit a total of 78 patients, all of whom will receive both drugs (free of charge). In order to be accepted for the study, the patient must fully comply with 28 threshold conditions in the initial stage.
It should be noted that the two drugs discussed in the health basket in Israel are also combined with metastatic melanoma or non-autopsy.
Nir Erez, an expert in clinical cancer research, founder and CEO of Trial-In Pharma.
