New Hope Against Melanoma

Skin cancer is scary, and it's tricky. If caught early it is easily treatable, but if not, it's potentially deadly. Even the best dermatologists can't spot everything. Targeted gene therapy is the latest treatment recognized by the New England Journal of Medicine. The new approach is proving fruitful when it comes to patients with the deadliest form of skin cancer... metastasized melanoma.

A mutation of the BRAF protein is the cause of the cancer spread in about half of the patients with melanoma. Because the protein is overactive in the majority of melanomas, if it continues to show success, this new treatment could become a breakthrough.

Targeted gene therapy reaches all the way down to the actual gene mutation, and scientists are able to block, or slow down the cancer from its origin.

"This therapy results in dramatic responses for patients — it's phenomenal. I've been taking care of patients with advanced melanoma for 25 years and this is one of the most important breakthroughs we've seen," Dr. Lynn Schuchter, professor of medicine at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania told ABC News.

Trials so far are very promising, and the treatment causes very little side effects, but like many drugs, the body can become resistant to this, too. It also loses effectiveness over time.

"Ultimately, resistance to the drug develops. It's the same idea as when bacteria develop a resistance to certain antibiotics, the same thing can happen with cancer and cancer therapy," said Schuchter.

Researchers hope that the treatment will become FDA approved soon since it they have seen such positive results in the trials. Even with its negatives, the drug will at least buy many melanoma patients, and scientists, more time for the next progression in treatments.

Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute via Wikipedia.