New cancer treatment dissolves woman’s tumor
Scientists are worried that new cancer treatments might be doing more harm than good as it takes away more than the tumor itself. After a woman received one treatment of a novel combination therapy, her tumor happened to have dissolved from her chest in just three weeks, with a gaping hole left in its place. She was given the same cocktail of skin cancer drugs as 150 individuals. Most patients did well on the combination therapy, but researchers were shocked when this woman’s rapid and dramatic response took place.
The trial had 142 patients with melanoma that had spread to other parts of the body, or metastasized, who were randomly assigned either Yervoy plus a placebo or Yervoy in combination with Opdivo. 53% of these patients had 80% tumor shrinkage, and melanoma had been undetectable in 22%. “It is ironic that we are now concerned about the possibility of overly vigorous antimelanoma responses,” the researchers write. Here are the trial results.
