Promising New Skin Cancer Drugs Revealed at Oncology Conference
Posted on June 6, 2011
Two promising new skin cancer treatments were announced today at a American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. BBC News reports that both drugs have shown to improve the survival rates of patients. Here are details about each drug:
- Vemurafenib is a pill that give patients better odds of surviving than chemotherapy. 84% of advanced melanoma patients who took the pills twice daily were still alive six months later, compared to 64% of the chemotherapy patients. The BBC says the results were so good the trail was stopped early and the chemo patients were switch over to Vemurafenib.
- Ipilimumab is a drug that is taken intravenously, whic also promises to give melanoma patients extra years of life.
More from Science Space & Robots
- Tiny Crustacean Snaps Giant Claw Shut 10,000 Times Faster Than Blink of a Human Eye
- Wearable Robotic Third Arm Smashes Walls and Picks Vegetables
- Hexapod Robots Walk Faster With Flexible Feet
- Giant Hailstone From Argentina Could Set New World Record
- It Rains Liquid Iron on Exoplanet WASP-76b