Two experimental medications may help extend lives of melanoma patients.

The New York Times (6/4, B3, Pollack, Subscription Publication) reports, "A new type of drug prolonged the lives of patients with advanced melanoma in a clinical trial, potentially adding to a growing number of therapies for a disease that was once nearly untreatable." The medication, "trametinib, also kept the disease from worsening longer than chemotherapy did, said" lead researcher Dr. Caroline Robert, "who is the head of dermatology at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France." Trametinib "blocks a protein called MEK that is just downstream of BRAF in the chain of signals that spur tumor growth."

        The Wall Street Journal (6/4, Dooren, Subscription Publication) reports that the study, and a study on a similar drug, dabrafenib, adds to the increasing amount of data suggesting that targeting specific genes linked to cancer growth can benefit patients.

        The Boston Globe (6/4, Johnson) reports, "In a study published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine" and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, "322 patients with metastatic melanoma and a specific genetic mutation in their tumors were randomly assigned to receive either a GlaxoSmithKline experimental drug called trametinib or chemotherapy." Investigators found that, "on average, the drug prevented tumor growth for 4.8 months -- more than three months longer than the group receiving just conventional chemotherapy."

        MedPage Today (6/4, Phend) reports, "ASCO press conference moderator Sylvia Adams, MD, of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, called the" trametinib "results exciting. 'It opens the landscape of treatment,' she said." However, "while the trametinib results represented an advantage, it wasn't a homerun, an editorial accompanying the NEJM paper suggested."

        Bloomberg News (6/4, Kitamura, Langreth) reports that in a separate study on a similar drug, also presented at the ASCO conference, researchers found that "dabrafenib delayed disease progression by 5.1 months, compared with 2.7 months for chemotherapy."

        MedPage Today (6/4, Phend) reports, "dabrafenib selectively blocks BRAF similar to vemurafenib (Zelboraf), which was approved for metastatic and unresectable melanoma last fall."

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        Bloomberg News (6/3, Kresge, Langreth) reported that "the study results 'are the first proof' that harnessing an antibody to deliver a toxic dose of chemotherapy straight into a solid tumor can work, said Kimberly Blackwell, a lead author of the study."