An agent that targets a genetic mutation active in half of melanoma cases substantially and safely shrank metastatic tumors. The drug, dabrafenib, also showed the most activity of any systemic treatment to date against secondary melanoma tumors in the brain.
Results of a phase 1 trial, recently published by The Lancet, illustrated the effectiveness of dabrafenib, which is an inhibitor of the BRAF oncogene. Approximately 50% of persons with metastatic melanoma have a BRAFmutation in their tumor, and the alteration also occurs in many other common cancer types including thyroid, colorectal, ovarian, and lung cancers. The most common BRAF mutations are Val600GIu and Val600Lys.
The study focused on 184 persons with incurable solid tumors, from eight centers in the United States and Australia. Most (156) of the participants had metastatic melanoma. During the course of the study, Gerald S. Falchook, MD, of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and coinvestigators established a recommended dose of 150 mg of dabrafenib twice daily, which was administered to three groups of patients with BRAF-mutant tumors: those with advanced melanoma, those with untreated melanoma brain metastases, and those with other BRAF-mutant solid tumors.
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