Glaxo’s Melanoma Cocktail Slows Cancer in Study

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/glaxo-s-melanoma-cocktail-slows-cancer-in-study.html

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK)’s combination of two experimental melanoma medicines slowed the progress of cancer with few skin complications in an early study, suggesting the combo may not have as many side effects as existing single- drug treatments.

Patients taking Glaxo’s dabrafenib and trametinib together had a lower incidence of rash and skin lesions than previously reported with Roche’s Zelboraf, according to a study of 77 patients with advanced melanoma, the most-severe form of skin cancer. The study, funded by London-based Glaxo, was released yesterday ahead of the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting that begins June 1 in Chicago.

“Not only are the two drugs causing shrinkage of the cancer, but we’re seeing that a second anti-cancer therapy may actually suppress the side effects of the first,” said Jeffrey Weber, an oncologist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, in a statement. “So far it is looking good.”

If the Glaxo combination succeeds in final-stage trials, it would compete with Zelboraf, a targeted therapy cleared in August for sale in the U.S. Zelboraf and Glaxo’s dabrafenib work by blocking BRAF, a mutant gene that spurs cancer cell growth in about half of melanoma patients. Glaxo’s trametinib is designed to thwart a related protein called MEK, which helps tumors resist an assault on BRAF.

[auburngrad82]

1. This is good news

I have what is called smouldering myeloma, which is basically a precursor to myeloma. Not everyone with smouldering myeloma develops the full blown cancer but the odds are that I eventually will.

The longer mine smoulders the more chances that a cure or treatment will be available. This looks like a potential move in that direction.