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First targeted therapy for melanoma brings hope

news.harvard.edu — In a demonstration that even some of the most hard-to-treat tumors may one day succumb to therapies aimed at molecular “weak points,” researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report the first instance in which metastatic melanoma has been driven into remission by a targeted therapy.

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  • voyetra8, on 04/28/2008, -0/+9This is what stage 4 melanoma looks like: http://youtube.com/watch?v=65Cqxio4_ow

    Rest in peace Carmelo.... thank goodness for this new hope.
    • esantipapa, on 04/28/2008, -0/+2Thank you very much for mentioning my cousin, I very much appreciate knowing so many people have seen his story.
  • BXRWXR, on 04/28/2008, -5/+1Still no cure for...

    No wait.
    • esantipapa, on 04/28/2008, -1/+2AIDS, SYPHILIS, CANCER, HERPES, CANCER, CANCER CANCER CANCER..... no, it is not cured. Those will not BE cured until people DEMAND they be cured completely and forever.
  • michael43, on 04/28/2008, -0/+4Finally, some good news! It's great to see a story with some substance hit the front page. I can sum up my thoughts on cancer with 2 words I saw on a nurse's button; "Cancer Sucks"
  • Krispy, on 04/28/2008, -6/+1ITZ NOT A TOMAH!
    • michael43, on 04/28/2008, -0/+3I realize there can be humor in just about anything, and laughter helps, but in this case you are just not funny.
  • DrDragun, on 04/28/2008, -0/+2Great news. gj as usual, Harvard
  • esantipapa, on 04/28/2008, -1/+4Please write to congress about my COUSIN CARMELO RODRIGUEZ!!!
    There is a template letter here: (no rickroll)
    http://carmelofoundation.chipin.com/carmelo-founda ...
    http://digg.com/world_news/A_Question_Of_Care_Mili ...
    http://digg.com/world_news/Sgt_Carmelo_Rodriguez_m ...
    Digg if you care. Thank you very much!!
  • koft, on 04/28/2008, -5/+2first
    • bbqsalad, on 04/28/2008, -1/+1buried actually...
    • DrDragun, on 04/28/2008, -0/+4A risky claim to make when you are posting from the SatPhone

      Ping to koft: 348730 ms
      • mal1964, on 04/28/2008, -0/+1Looks like you're right on, I just wish I knew why. :(
  • mal1964, on 04/28/2008, -0/+2Please put sunblock on yourself and your children. Many good and bad habits are formed early in life.
  • Supawantastic, on 04/28/2008, -0/+3Gleevec is a remarkable drug...I should know, I take it daily for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. Many of the new cancer treatments center around targeting specific proteins such as the KIT (Tyrosine Kinase) which is great because generally the side effects of the drug are much less than those of the cancer. I'm sure Novatris is salivating over this news since a 400mg daily script of Gleevec is $3,000 US/month.
    • esantipapa, on 04/28/2008, -0/+1What does it cost UK citizens? or French citizens? or Cuban citizens? No, really, does anyone know...? they have a modernized national health care system, I wonder how much it really costs their citizens for the same life saving medication.
    • nullcodes, on 04/28/2008, -0/+1Do you take Dasatinib as well ?

      If not .. read up and look into it .. combo therapy is better than sequential mono-therapy because it reduces evolution chances.
    • nullcodes, on 04/28/2008, -0/+1Hey look into this:

      http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/Leu ...
  • nullcodes, on 04/28/2008, -0/+1Multi-target therapy is used to overcome resistance. That is a drugs that can attack three or four targets simultanously.

    This will be how cancers in the future are treated.

    1. A sample of a person's cancer is sequenced.
    2. At least four targeted drugs are given that each of which target mutations found in the person's tumor.

    Provide all the drugs penetrate and are consistently bioavailable, for the tumor to become resistant, at least one tumor cell will need to generate an offspring that has at all four mutations simultaneously .. each of which enable evasion of the drugs.

    Resistance arises because given the large number of tumor cells .. it is probable that some of the cells and also their offspring cells contain a mutation (or mutations) in exactly the right spot so that the drug target is modified to evade the drug. However it is highly unlikely that a cell or its offspring would have mutations in exactly the right locations to evade 3 or 4 drugs simultaneously (giving 3 drugs in sequential monotherapy fails because given that the first drug may leave behind millions of cells .. a large number of _those_ cells an offspring is very likely to be mutant to the second drug also).

    In the more distant future .. step two will be one drug that attacks multiple targets .. so the tumor cell needs far too many exacting simultaneous SNPs. This will overcome a top reason combination therapy can fail in diseases like AIDS .. which is that each drug is differently bioavailable and then it becomes the same as sequential monotherapy which is inevitably doomed to failure.


    Gleevec + Dasatinib simultaneously is very effective in curing CML in most people because it covered nearly all possible mutations (except one .. therefore it doesn't cure everyone).
  • nycmac247, on 04/28/2008, -0/+1holy ***** I thought it said "meglomania"

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