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Advanced melanoma drug nearly doubles survival time
http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/22/10480484-advanced-melanoma-drug-nearly-doubles-survival-timeZelboraf, a drug used to treat advanced cases of the deadly skin cancer melanoma, nearly doubles the length of patients' lives, a new study has found.
The drug was approved last year by the Food and Drug Administration to treat patients with malignant melanoma whose tumors carry a specific gene mutation, called BRAF V600E. Almost 50 percent of people with melanoma have the mutation.
At the time of the drug's approval, it was clear that patients taking the drug lived longer than those not taking it, but exactly how much longer could not be measured from earlier data.
In the new study, researchers looked at 132 melanoma patients with the mutation, mostly men under age 65.