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Friday 13 Nov 2015 - 23:59 Makkah mean time-1-2-1437
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Maryland, (IINA) - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States has approved a new two-drug combination for metastatic melanoma after it was shown to be more effective at slowing the growth of tumors and preventing the growth of secondary tumors in some patients, UPI reported.
"Vemurafenib", sold as Zelboraf, is used to treat patients with melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body and whose tumors express a gene mutation called "BRAF V600E". The mutation causes melanoma to grow continuously as cancer, an effect not completely stopped by vemurafenib according to research.
Researchers at the University of California combined vemurafenib with "cobimetinib", sold as Cotellic, which blocks an enzyme called MEK in another signaling pathway of cancer cells, restricting the ability of tumors to grow.
The combination was extremely effective on patients who were in the clinical trial. The FDA gave the combination a priority review in order to speed up its approval.
"The approval is a very significant advance in the treatment of metastatic melanoma", said Dr. Antoni Ribas, a researcher at UCLA. "For patients with a BRAF mutated melanoma, the combination has higher activity to shrink their tumors, and with less side effects than the drugs on their own".
"As we continue to advance our knowledge of tumor biology, we have learned that cancer cells have a remarkable ability to adapt and become resistant to targeted therapies", said Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the office of hematology and oncology products at the FDA. "Combining two or more treatments addressing different cancer-causing targets may help to address this challenge".
AG/IINA
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