Last Summer we reported on an exciting new treatment for malignant melanoma, Ipilimumab, which was entering late-stage clinical trials.

Ipilimumab is a monoclonal antibody treatment, which stimulates the body's immune system to fight the cancer.  Monoclonal antibodies treatments includes some fairly well known cancer treatments, for example, Herceptin, which is sometimes used for treating breast cancer.

We're pleased to see the latest results from the clinical trial, reported to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, are incredibly positive.  It's likely that a new 'gold standard' treatment for malignant melanoma will be available in the near future.

As far as cancers go, malignant melanoma is one of the most aggressive.  Melanoma rates have risen faster than any other cancer in the last thirty years.  If it's caught early, when it's still a visible tumour on the skin, melanoma can be excised completely.  Once cells have spread from the original tumour to other parts of the body, the outlook is poor; there's no effective treatment and mortality usually occurs within months.

The global, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial recruited patients from 24 countries, ultimately enrolling 502 individuals with inoperable advanced metastatic melanoma (who had received no prior therapy for advanced disease).  The results clearly showed the drug extended overall survival by 11.2 months, compared to 9.1 months for Dacarbazine, the most commonly used current treatment.

The final stages of the trials will involve identifying the optimal dose and duration of Ipilimumab, as well as determining whether specific patient subsets respond better than others to the agent.

As the treatment is still a little way from being readily available, by far the best way to prevent melanoma is still to take care in the sun - wear protective clothing and a high-factor sun block - and get checked quickly if a mole or lesion is a concern; bleeding, itching or changes colour or shape should always be checked as soon as possible.