New treatments for skin cancer emerge

Patients with advanced skin cancer may benefit from two new drugs unveiled at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, the BBC reports. A pill named Vemurafenib, which was tested on 675 patients with advanced melanoma, seems to improve chances of survival longer than chemotherapy, while another intravenous drug called Ipilimumab is expected to give extra years of life. In a trial, 84 per cent of patients who took Vemurafenib twice a day were still alive six months later, compared to 64 per cent on standard chemotherapy, and the drug reduced the risk of the disease worsening by 74 per cent, compared with chemotherapy. Both drugs could be available to patients in the U.K. within months subject to approval.

BBC News