( CHICAGO According to study findings pr...)Combination Improves Survival of Metastatic Melanoma Patients: Phase II Study,Health

CHICAGO According to study findings presented today at the 2007 American Association of Clinical Oncology, two chemotherapy drugs combined with an agent that prevents the growth of blood vessels, significantly delayed the spread of tumors in patients with metastatic melanoma.

In this phase II clinical trial of 53 patients, tumor growth was delayed by almost six months, whereas, typically, these cancers begin spreading again eight weeks after chemotherapy treatment, researchers say.

The study was presented today by Domingo Perez, M.D., the lead author of the study who is a former oncology fellow at Mayo Clinic and is now in private practice in Minneapolis.

"The clinical benefit may seem small, but in the world of melanoma where there is very little progress, this is certainly a strong indication that the combination of chemotherapy with an antiangiogenic agent may be a valid treatment strategy for these patients. But the only way to know this for certain is a head to head comparison with the standard course of treatment," Dr. Perez says.

Melanoma that has metastasized (spread) to other parts of the body is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Though rare, it is also the most deadliest of skin cancers because it does not respond well to chemotherapy. About one melanoma patient dies every hour (8,000 every year) in the United States, and 60,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, Dr. Markovic says.

People who have been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma generally live between six and 12 months after diagnosis. Despite years of research, there are no long-term effective treatments and no cure.

In this study, researchers combined two chemotherapy drugs paclitaxel (Taxol) and carboplatin with bevacizumab, a drug that prevents the formation of new blood vessels and is used to treat cancer in combination with chemotherapy drugs.

The combination of paclitaxel (Taxol) an
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