Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. In sun-loving Australia, melanoma is so prevalent that according to the Melanoma Institute of Australia, 14,000 people will be diagnosed with it this year, and more than 1,800 Australians are expected to die from it this year. That’s five people dying from melanoma each day.
But there is some good news on the horizon. Australian researchers are stopping melanoma in its tracks. Aussie experts have discovered two new treatments, that they say can effectively stop the disease from spreading and killing people.
In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at the Melanoma Institute Australia announced the successful trial of a combination of new treatments to prevent melanoma from spreading to other organs.
“Our ultimate goal of making melanoma a chronic rather than a terminal illness is now so much closer to being achieved,” said Professor Georgina Long, one of the institute’s medical directors.
“Until now, stage three melanoma patients who have had their tumours surgically removed have simply had to play the waiting game, to see if their melanoma would metastasise or spread,” she said.
“Living with such fear severely affected them and their loved ones.”
The findings were “massive”
The scientist conducted two trials (one immunotherapy-based and the other targeted therapies-based), and were successful in both in preventing the spread of the disease in stage three melanoma patients whose tumours had been surgically removed.
In the first trial, patients took immunotherapy drugs (nivolumab or ipilimumab) for 12 months. Immunotherapies reboot the immune system to attack the melanoma cells.
Professor Long says the studies mean she can now tell her patients that after they’ve had surgery, they can have 12 months of drug therapy which will reduce their cancer coming back from 50 percent to 25 percent (by the ipilimumab drug) and another 35 percent (by nivolumab).
“That’s massive,” she said.
In a different trial, participants took a combination of target therapies, which block the action of a particular gene that is a driver for melanoma.
“Twelve months of these tablet therapies decreased the chance of the melanoma coming back – compared to doing nothing, our standard is chop it out and watch – by 53 percent,” Professor Long said.
These huge breakthroughs could dramatically reduce the number of deaths from melanoma in the years ahead.
Redheads are at greater risk
This is great news for all Australians and particularly redheads, who have an increased risk of developing skin cancer, especially melanoma, in the first place. After discovering a link between red hair and cancer risk, a different team of scientists have developed a way to potentially protect redheads from the disease.
People with red hair have unique variants of a protein called Melanocortin 1 Receptor (MC1R), which plays a big role in pigmentation. The way in which MC1R works is affected by a process called palmitoylation. A new study, published in Nature, explains that if this process is enhanced, the risk of developing melanoma is reduced.
While research is yet to be trialled on humans – mice were used in the study – it’s another exciting breakthrough in the treatment and prevention of one of the world’s most deadly cancers.
