New ‘Smart’ Pill Shown to Extend Lives of Patients with Most Aggressive Form of Skin Cancer

6 June 2011 - A new pill that targets the activity of a faulty gene present in half of terminally ill metastatic melanoma patients has been shown to significantly extend overall survival compared to standard chemotherapy.

Patients with the mutated BRAF gene who were given the twice-daily vemurafenib pills were significantly more likely to be alive at six months than those receiving dacarbazine. Based on the significance of the data, the trial was halted early as it was deemed unethical for patients to continue receiving standard chemotherapy and not vemurafenib.

The Institute of Cancer Research was responsible for key research on the BRAF gene that paved the way for the development of this first-of-its-kind personalised treatment for advanced melanoma. Dr James Larkin, from The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, was UK Principal Investigator for the trial, while Professor Richard Marais’ work at the ICR demonstrated the importance of BRAF in melanoma.