FDA approves new skin cancer treatment

Despite faithfully applying sunscreen her entire life, IU sophomore Rachel Bewley was diagnosed with melanoma last summer.

Bewley also had surgery to remove all lymph nodes in her left arm, one of which had tested positive for melanoma. Bewley received a drug called Interferon, which is a protein naturally produced by the body to fight diseases.

“It’s an immune therapy because chemo doesn’t work on skin cancer,” Bewley said. “It’s not killing anything like chemo does. It’s building your immune system.”

Interferon is only one type of drug available, though.

One week ago, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new treatment for patients with late-stage melanoma, a more serious progression of Bewley’s cancer.

The new drug, Yervoy, blocks a naturally occurring molecule in the body that could slow down or shut down the body’s immune system. Yervoy helps the body recognize melanoma cells and attack them.

Yervoy is designed to prolong late-stage melanoma patients’ lives, not to cure the disease.

In the FDA’s trial, participants receiving Yervoy lived an average three and a half months longer than those who didn’t receive Yervoy.

Because Bewley’s doctors removed all lymph nodes surrounding the one infected node, her cancer did not spread.

When cancer spreads to other parts of the body, the diagnosis becomes more severe, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation’s website. Patients with cancer in multiple body parts are referred to as late-stage cancer patients.

Bewley decided not to return to IU in fall 2010 and stayed home to receive treatment.

Melanoma is labeled as “the most serious form of skin cancer” by the Skin Cancer Foundation. If not treated early, it becomes one of the hardest types of cancer to treat and is almost always fatal. Once patients reach the late stage, patients on average live around six to eight months.

Because of her early surgery, today Bewley is cancer cell-free and continues to take Interferon to reduce her chances of having melanoma again.

“When they found out it was just one (lymph node), they knew pretty well I would recover,” Bewley said.

MELANOMA QUICK FACTS

2010: 68,130 new cases of invasive melanoma diagnosed in United States. 8,700 people died from melanoma.

Diagnosed: The American Cancer Society estimates about 120,000 new diagnoses of melanoma per year.

Facts: Melanoma usually begins as a mole, but can also begin in cells with the pigment melanin, including the eye.

Onset early in life is usually a result of genetic predisposition. Melanoma caused by sun damage usually appears later in life.

(Source: National Cancer Institute)

— Colleen Sikorski