The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new therapy treatment for skin cancer, specifically metastatic melanoma. The drug combination, which was partly developed at UCLA, has shown promise in treating this kind of skin cancer or melanoma without causing a secondary skin cancer.
This combination of drugs has a very high success rate particularly for patients with a BRAF mutated melanoma with lower risk of adverse side effects. The drugs have been tested at UCLA and in 135 other sites around the US, Europe, Australia and Russia.
Skin Cancer Treatments Are Scarce
The drug vemurafenib, also known as Zelboraf, was combined with cobimetinib, or Cotellic, and given to 495 patients with BRAF V600, a mutation-positive advanced skin cancer or melanoma. Patients saw such a tremendous improvement that the study was continued, and the FDA granted it Priority Review status, which led to the drug being approved.
These New Treatment Prevents Secondary Skin Cancer From Forming
Currently, 70,000 Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer or melanoma per year, and 8,000 of these people die from the disease. Half of the Americans diagnosed have a mutated proten called a BRAF mutation, which is treated with vemurafenib. By combining it with cobimentinib, not only does the drug therapy block the signal for the melanoma to grow as a cancer, but it can also prevent any other skin cancers from forming.
It seems that every day there are some advancements being made in medicine, and more and more of them seem to be related to treating or curing cancer.
Today, more specifically, skin cancer and the drug that was approved today by the FDA have been making headlines. Currently, the Skin Cancer Foundation said that melanoma kills nearly 10,000 people every year and almost fifteen times that much are diagnosed every year as well.
Skin cancer is not incurable, but if caught late it can spread throughout the body. Then, the disease may reach a place where it becomes inoperable.
The skin cancer drug’s fda announcement
The press release was made available yesterday afternoon by Novartis, mostly known for their new drug for heart disease recently approved by the FDA. The new skin cancer drug is called Odomzo, and it is now available for public consumption. Novartis is a healthcare company based in Switzerland that focuses part of its efforts on pharmaceuticals. The new skin cancer drug is the newest pharmaceutical released by their company.
the drug comes with a small catch, though
The new skin cancer drug is, according to the FDA a sonidegib, which will help treat patients with melanoma that have come back after treatment and those not approved for surgery or therapy. The thing is that the drug will be used for the basal cell carcinoma in the advance part of the illness.
But the benefit is that when taken daily, the new skin cancer drug should help stop the spreading of the disease quite a bit for patients. Trials showed that the small group of testers had tumors that grew smaller and smaller when taking the new skin cancer drug, and some even went away completely.
Keep in mind, some of the side effects are not great – you will still lose hair and such, but one major concern is that there may be some muscle tissue problems that form as a result of the new skin cancer drug. So you should decide for yourself if you want to chance taking the new drug with the side effects.
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A study published on Monday, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, suggest that citrus fruits may cause melanoma, otherwise known as the most dangerous type of skin cancer. According to the study, the reason may be due to high levels of furocoumarins, which is found in citrus fruits.
Furocoumarins created by plants as a defense mechanism and they are very photoactive. In the study, 1,840 of the participants developed melanoma. Also, participants that ingested a serving of citrus fruit or juice 1.6 times daily, had a 36% higher risk of skin cancer. This research study may impact some of you more then others, but you deserve to know how this new information can impact your life. Here are the reasons why you should sort of care that citrus fruits may be linked to skin cancer:
Why You Should Care
Furocumarins, produced by citrus fruits, has been suspected of playing a big role in the cause of melanoma. One thing you should know about furocumarins is that they are photoactive, meaning their toxicity is intensified by ultraviolet light. Furocumarins have been known to make skin more sensitive to sun, so you can say goodbye to enjoying summer vacation. You won’t get to indulge in sun tanning or walks on the beach. And there will absolutely be no instagram photo sessions or snapchats to your finds, even though the lighting would be perfect.
No offense to people with melanoma, but the patches that form are really disgusting. I don’t think most of us have the confidence to walk around with miscoloration on the skin. If you do, more power to you.
Another thing that would suck if citrus fruits directly correlate to skin cancer is the absence of orange juice with breakfast. Orange juice is a stable breakfast drink for many families and it would be deeply missed.
And let’s not forget the limes that would be missing with our margaritas and tequila shots. That is the true tragedy.
Why You Shouldn’t Care
I am not a big fan of lemons. Lemon flavored cookies, cakes, or pies are just wrong and should not exist. And when waiters put a lemon in my water, I send it back (not really, but I wish I was that ruthless). If you’re like me you could care less about how citrus fruits may be linked to skin cancer because you can’t stand them anyway.
The research is inconclusive at the moment. Researchers are unsure whether it is citrus whole fruits, juices, or both. Also, the test participants were not representative of the general population. The participants were made up of nurses and other people involved in health professions. This may just be a medical career thing. Maybe bad nurses are linked to skin cancer.
The fact that citrus fruits may be linked to skin cancer might not concern you at all. You may be home and think this information is irrelevant and stupid. But there are some of you that need to take note of this warning. Slow down on your consumption of citrus fruits before it’s too late.
Can you give up citrus foods? Maybe Pavlok can help:
