Melanoma patients who were told to get their affairs in order have been cured of the disease.
A clinical trial in Wollstonecraft, Sydney, was conducted involving patients with cancer that had spread to the brain. The trial discovered that combining two immunotherapy drugs, instead of just one, increased the chances of survival.
Linda Kavanagh was diagnosed with terminal melanoma in 2017 and had 30 tumours throughout her body, including seven in her brain.
When used together the drugs marketed as Opdivo and Yervoy supercharge the patient’s own immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells.
Professor Georgina Long, from the Melanoma Institute Australia, reported that out of 36 terminal patients who received the combination therapy, over half were still alive and healthy seven years later. This outcome was surprising as these patients were initially expected to survive only 16 weeks.
“What we can say, and we don’t like to use these words lightly, cure for advanced melanoma patients,” Long said.
In just a few months, Kavanagh’s tumours start to shrink and today she’s cancer free.
“We’re not just saying pushing your survival out by a few months or years, we’re saying actually this cancer won’t be your problem,” Long said.
The positive results from this study have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of various cancers. Combination immunotherapy is now being explored in the treatment of lung cancer, bladder cancer, and triple negative breast cancer, among others.
People with advanced melanoma that has spread to the brain can access the treatment today for free.
