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.

While the new drugs are promisng, the L.A. Times and Reuters have realistic buzz-kill articles which discuss the costs of cancer drugs soaring out of control.