Skin cancer patients resistant to leading therapy studied
Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 11:30
in Health & Medicine
Powerful drugs known as BRAF-inhibitors have been crucial for melanoma patients, saving lives through their ability to turn off the BRAF protein’s power to spur cancer cell growth. Yet they often work for only a year or less. Scientists know some of the DNA mutations that cause the drug resistance, but scientists have not been able to determine the underlying cause of the resistance in as many as a third of these patients. Now researchers may have found a way to more accurately predict which patients will likely respond to genomic-based follow-up therapies, by looking at unique “protein patterns” in melanoma patients.