Immunotherapy can help melanoma in the brain

By Robert Preidt

Journalist HealthDay

THURSDAY, July 12, 2018 (HealthDay News) – A type of therapy that harnesses the immune system gives new hope to people battling a once-desperate cancer – melanoma that is [19659004] A new study of more than 2,700 US patients confirms what experts in the field have known for a long time: "check point barrage" treatment helps ward off these devastating tumors

. Melanoma brain metastases have seen firsthand the dramatic improvements in survival that immunotherapy can achieve, "said one of these specialists, Dr. Jason Ellis

" This study provides data to support our individual clinical observations, "said Ellis, a neurosurgeon, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.He was not involved in the new study.

Blocking agents are not chemotherapy – instead to act directly on the tumor cells, they manipulate the patient's immune system so that it targets and destroys melanoma cells. "Immunotherapy" has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2011.

The new research was led by Dr. J. Bryan Iorgulescu, a postdoctoral pathologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital / Harvard Medical School in Boston, whose team explained that Viron one in 54 Americans would develop melanoma skin cancer during his lifetime.

Fortunately, most cases are detected early and easily cured by surgery. But sometimes, the tumor has had time to spread, even to the brain. In fact, advanced melanoma is now the third leading cause of metastatic brain cancer, notes the research team.

In his badysis, the Iorgulescu group followed the results of 2,753 melanoma patients who had spread to the brain. Patients were treated in cancer centers across the country between 2010 and 2015.

The study showed that first-line therapy with blocking immunotherapy was badociated with an increase in median overall survival of 5.2 months to 12.4 months. linked to an increase in overall survival rate over four years: just over 28% of patients who received immunotherapy survived at least four years, compared to about 11% of patients who did not receive treatment , according to the results.

The researchers noted that the survival benefits were even greater for patients whose melanoma did not spread beyond the brain to organs such as the liver or lungs.

. Clinical trials of immune blocking control points for advanced melanoma and demonstrate that their substantial survival benefits also extend to melanoma patients with brain metastases, "Iorgulescu said in a statement. release from Brigham and Women. Michael Schulder helps lead neurosurgery at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY He did not participate in the new badysis but confirmed that it confirmed what many cancer specialists know for a long time: "The use of checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized the treatment and prospects for patients with metastatic melanoma."

Boston researchers cautioned, however: All patients do not have equal access to this expensive treatment. The insurance status was a real impediment to immunotherapy in some patients with these advanced tumors, and uninsured patients were far less likely to get the treatment than the people benefiting from. private insurance or health insurance

. ] Research on the immunology of cancer .