Discover's top 2011 stories include new melanoma therapy
February 13, 2012
Medically Reviewed | Last reviewed by an MD Anderson Cancer Center medical professional on February 13, 2012
Read between the lines and you'll find an MD Anderson Cancer Center connection to one of Discover's top 100 stories of 2011, announced in the magazine's January-February 2012 special issue.
The connection lies within top story No. 60, "New Treatments Slow Deadly Skin Cancer," summed up in Discover's words: "Two treatments that boost the immune system improve survival rates and slow cancer growth in late-stage melanoma patients." #60: New Treatments Slow Deadly Skin Cancer | Cancer | DISCOVER Magazine
The second therapy is described as "a separate clinical trial (that) paired a novel melanoma vaccine with an immune-stimulating agent called interleuken-2," whose "net result, published in June," showed that "the combination therapy increased survival by about six months compared with interleukin-2 treatment alone."
MD Anderson Melanoma Medical Oncology Department chair Patrick Hwu, M.D., was senior author on the New England Journal of Medicine article published June 2, 2011, which reported clinical trial results of the trial of this combination therapy.
Additional resources MD Anderson news release New England Journal of Medicine paper