The trial found that out of 132 patients enrolled in the trial, 47 percent had a partial response to the drug and six percent exhibited a complete response, for a total response rate of 53 percent. Overall survival was nearly 16 months – far longer than the typical survival of just six to 10 months for most patients whose melanoma has metastasized beyond the initial tumor site.

Results from the trial, led by co-principal investigators Jeffrey Sosman, M.D., director of the Melanoma Program and co-leader of the Signal Transduction Program at VICC, and Antoni Ribas, M.D., professor of Hematology/Oncology at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, were published in the Feb. 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“This study confirms what we have discovered in our earlier trials." said Sosman. "Many of our patients are exhibiting a strong, immediate response to this drug and some are living significantly longer, with manageable side effects.” He added, “It was interesting to note that a few of the patients were treated with the drug for up to six months before showing convincing evidence of response.”

“This study shows that Zelboraf changes the natural history of the disease,” said Ribas. “These results tell us that this drug is having a very big impact, and this changes the way we treat metastatic melanoma.”

While these results are cause of optimism, most melanoma patients treated with vemurafenib eventually see their tumor develop resistance to the drug. GeneKey has analyzed such resistant tumors and discovered potential mechanisms and drugs that might help overcome resistance. Further investigation is currently under way.

Read more:  

GeneKey Sees Breadth of Cancer Genome Advisory Service as Differentiator in Rapidly Growing Market 

“We’ve made significant strides in clinical cancer research over the past year and this report adds renewed hope for patients,” said Nicholas J. Vogelzang, MD, Co-Executive Editor of the report. “More personalized treatment approaches and advances in early detection are helping patients live longer, healthier lives. But we must improve the nation’s clinical research system and expand access to quality cancer care to accelerate the pace of progress.”

This year’s top research advances demonstrate new therapies for reducing cancer recurrence, progress made against hard-to-treat cancers, and improvements in cancer prevention and screening. The report also highlights several new drug approvals that bring smarter, more effective therapies to specific genetic subgroups of patients with cancer. The top five advances selected by the editors are:

• A Phase III study finding that vemurafenib (Zelboraf), which targets a common mutation in melanoma in a gene called BRAF, improved overall survival in patients with advanced melanoma when compared to standard chemotherapy
• A large national screening trial of more than 50,000 current and former heavy smokers that found three annual low-dose computed tomography (CT) scans reduced the death rate from lung cancer by 20 percent compared to those who were screened with three annual chest X-rays
• FDA approvals on therapies for two hard-to-treat cancers:
  • Crizotinib (Xalkori) was approved for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer who harbor a specific type of alteration in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene based on the results from two Phase II studies: one study demonstrated that 50 percent of patients experienced complete or partial tumor shrinkage for a median of 10 months and a second study found a 61 percent objective response rate lasting a median of 12 months
  • Ipilimumab (Yervoy) – an immune therapy that activates the immune system’s T cells – was approved for patients with previously untreated metastatic melanoma based on the results of a Phase III trial showing that the drug, combined with the standard chemotherapy drug dacarbazine, improved overall survival by two months
• The first conclusive evidence that an aromatase inhibitor reduced the risk of a first breast cancer, making exemestane (Aromasin) a preventative treatment option for postmenopausal women who are at high risk for the disease

Selected by an 18-person editorial board of prominent oncologists, the report highlights a total of 54 advances in clinical oncology over the past year and covers the full scope of patient care, including cancer disparities, advanced cancer care and survivor care. Clinical Cancer Advances 2011 also features a “Year in Review” section, which describes key cancer policy developments and ASCO policy initiatives from the past year that are likely to influence cancer care over the coming years.

Read more.

Large cancer centers have been slowed by the challenges of scaling genetic sequencing to hundreds and thousands of patients. In addition, they limit their analysis to known cancer mutations with associated approved drugs and clinical trials for specified tumor types.

In contrast, GeneKey analyzes not only the mutations but also any biological process that is abnormal in the tumor samples. We then search thousands of approved compounds, not just cancer therapies, for drugs that target those abnormal processes.

The campaign is picking up traction among patient advocates who know from personal experience how important it is to tailor treatment to the individual disease. "Since the day I was diagnosed, I've heard it said a million times that each person's cancer experience is different. It turns out that each person's cancer is different too - on a molecular level," writes cancer survivor and advocate Debbie Woodbury on her blog Where We Go Now. "Asking the question takes the management of your cancer to the next level."

"Although this information wasn't around when I was going through my treatments I did benefit from personalized molecular-level diagnostics," recalls another cancer survivor on his blog, Aaron Outward. "I had a molecular abnormality in my leukemia called the philadelphia chromosome in which I was given a designer drug to specifically target that abnormality during the course of my treatment." 

The Is My Cancer Different? website offers fact-sheets about personalized cancer diagnostics and therapies, as well as a trove of educational videos such as this one.

The site's goal is to get 1 million people in 1 million minutes to share the site via social media. Tell us what you think about the movement for "Is My Cancer Different?"