Intermittent dosing with vemurafenib may prolong lives of melanoma patients

Drug-Resistant Melanoma Tumors Shrink When Therapy Is Interrupted — ?Intermittent Dosing? Strategy in Lab Mice Suggests Simple Way to Help People with Late-Stage Melanoma – Researchers in California and Switzerland have discovered that melanomas that develop resistance to the anti-cancer drug vemurafenib (marketed as Zelboraf), also develop addiction to the drug, an observation that may have important implications for the lives of patients with late-stage disease.

New melanoma drug doubles survival of skin cancer patients

Skin cancer drug hopes raised by study — Advanced melanoma drug nearly doubles survival time – Investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and 12 other centers in the United States and Australia have found that a new drug for patients with metastatic melanoma nearly doubled median overall survival.

Zelboraf approved for late stage skin cancer

FDA approves Zelboraf and companion diagnostic test for late-stage skin cancer — Second melanoma drug approved this year that improves overall survival – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved Zelboraf (vemurafenib), a drug to treat patients with late-stage (metastatic) or unresectable (cannot be removed by surgery) melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer.

Health Newstrack