Treatment

Guest blog post by Bertil Damato, MD, PhD, FRCOphth. Dr. Damato is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Oxford, United Kingdom and a member of the CURE OM Patient Registry Steering Committee.

As part of their Commitment to Patients and Caregivers, our partners at Novartis are working to make the clinical trial experience more patient-centric and widely accessible. To this goal, they are currently seeking melanoma patients who have participated in a clinical trial in the past two years and who are interested in serving on an advisory board.

Meet the Scientist: Your Chance to Speak with the Mind Behind the COLUMBUS Phase 3 Trial in BRAF-Mutant Melanoma

Last week the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded approval of Yervoy (ipilimumab) to include pediatric patients ages 12 years and older with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. Yervoy, a monoclonal antibody that activates the immune system by blocking the CTLA-4 receptor, was first approved in 2011 to treat unresectable or metastatic melanoma in adults.

The MRF's Executive Director shares his thoughts on the recent controversy involving a New York Times' editor and his criticism of breast cancer patient Lisa Adams.

We’ve heard the story before: a woman is treated successfully for her melanoma, only to have the cancer come back after ten years. How? Why? One explanation is something called “tumor heterogeneity.”

I recently met with a company called Delcath, which has a procedure designed to combat metastases to the liver. It works by infusing high doses of chemotherapy directly into the liver through the bloodstream. As the blood exits the liver, it is shunted outside the body and run through special filters that remove the majority of the toxic chemotherapy compound. The blood then goes back into the body’s general circulation.

Yesterday, the MRF hosted a live webinar focusing on how to manage melanoma treatment in a rapidly changing landscape. As we prepared for the webinar, I heard disturbing stories of many patients receiving care that is sloppy, outdated, or just wrong: