Taking certain cocktail of skin cancer drugs
'can reduce growth of tumours by 80%'
- Scientists believe the drugs work together to reduce tumour size
- Combination caused long-lasting reduction in tumours for several patients
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Scientists are 'very exciting' after studies showed taking a combination of drugs could reduce tumours by 80 per cent (file photo)
A cocktail of drugs can reduce advanced skin cancer tumours by more than 80 per cent, say scientists.
Researchers say they are 'very excited' by the results, which have never been seen in melanoma, a type of skin cancer, before.
They used a combination of immunotherapy drug ipilimumab and the investigational antibody drug nivolumab, and found that the mixture led to long-lasting tumour shrinkage in more than half of patients with metastatic, or spreading, melanoma.
Several patients experienced tumour shrinkage of more than 80 percent within 12 weeks of receiving the drugs, and the shrinkage was long lasting.
The results showed that 40 percent of patients who received varying dosages had an objective response - meaning at least a 50 percent reduction in tumour size.
Side effects from the drug combination were manageable and often reversible, the results from the clinical trial, published in in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), showed.
Dr Jeff Wolchok, of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said: 'We are very excited about the response rates these patients have experienced.
'This kind of deep and rapid tumour regression has never been seen in melanoma using immunotherapy, and suggests that these two drugs could be better used in combination than alone.'
The decision was made to combine the drugs after promising results in pre-trial testing, which suggested they may impact the immune system in a complementary way.
Dr Wolchok said ipilimumab, which has already been approved for skin cancer treatment, blocks a inhibitory marker called CTLA-4.
Researchers believe the drugs may work together to reduce melanomas (file photo)
This activates the immune system, prompting T cells to start attacking the tumour.
Nivolumab blocks the receptor PD-1, and this further activates T cells in a different manner, allowing them to continue the attack.
Dr Wolchok said: 'Previous studies had shown that ipilimumab alone could prolong overall survival in advanced melanoma patients, and nivolumab alone could produce durable tumour responses in melanoma and other cancers, so the combination of the two drugs was quite logical and well supported by preclinical and clinical trial data.'
However, Dr Wolchok notes that not all patients respond to immunotherapy and determining why some patients do not is becoming an extremely important part of advancing this field.
The researchers plan to carry out further and more detailed trials this month.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2334804/Taking-certain-cocktail-skin-cancer-drugs-reduce-growth-tumours-80.html#ixzz2VGmz3gqM
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