New skin cancer drug vemurafenib fights melanoma well, improves patient outcomes — study : Skin cancers are common and one kind is deadly. In the world, they’re among most common forms of cancers, accounting for one in three cancers diagnosed. In the United States, they’re the most common cancers.

According to the World Health Organization, over two million cases of skin cancer occur worldwide each year — including some 132,000 cases of malignant melanoma, the most fatal skin cancer.

Meanwhile, the rates of new cases continue to rise, especially among younger people, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says. Of the three types of skin cancer, melanoma is now a rare cancer — but it’s slowly emerging as one of the most frequently diagnosed forms of cancer, the FDA warns.

Continue reading Yervoy (Ipilimumab) & Zelboraf (Vemurafenib) Effectiveness & Survival Rates →

Erivedge Side Effects and Adverse Health Reactions. The most common cancer in Europe, Australia and the United States, basal cell carcinoma’s incidence is rising worldwide.

Each year, the disease strikes some 800,000 people in the U.S., one in seven Canadians, and 100,000 people in the United Kingdom. In Australia, incidence for superficial BCCs is 336/100,000 in men and 251/100,000 in women. Statistically, about three in every 10 Caucasians may develop a basal cell carcinoma within their lifetime.

Generally, BCCs are slow growing and painless forms of skin cancer that start in the skin’s sun-exposed top layer or epidermis.

Unlike the more deadly skin cancers melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma, BCCs are not usually fatal. But because they often grow on the face and other exposed areas, they can be horrid-looking and disfiguring. In rare cases, too, a BCC can also metastasize or spread to other parts of the body and become deadly.

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FDA allows drug that rids toxic levels of cancer remedy: The United States Food and Drug Administration on Jan. 17 approved a drug to reduce dangerous levels of a specified chemotherapy medication in cancer patients with failing kidneys. The drug, called Voraxaze (glucarpidase), helps eliminate the chemotherapy agent methotrexate in patients whose kidneys have been distressed by treatment with high doses of the chemotherapy drug.

Methotrexate is a commonly used cancer chemotherapy used to treat breast, bone and lung cancer and leukemia. In much lower doses, it is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Normally eliminated from the body by the kidneys, methotrexate can be harmful if it builds up in the body.

The new drug, Voraxaze, rapidly reduces methotrexate levels, as it is an enzyme that breaks the chemotherapy drug down into a form the body can eliminate. Voraxaze is administered intravenously or directly into a patient’s vein.

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Zelboraf Side Effects: Diarrhea & Other Bad Side Effects. Europe’s drug regulator has approved the targeted melanoma drug Zelboraf (vemurafenib), expanding the treatment options available to nearly 160,000 people who are afflicted every year by the deadliest form of skin cancer.

The European Medicines Agency’s approval of Zelboraf follows that of the United States Food and Drug Administration given in August, and Roche Holding AG, the drug’s Swiss maker, said it expects the European Commission to endorse the approval formally in February 2012.

The new medication is targeted for patients with tumors that have a mutation in a gene known as BRAF that allows melanoma cells to grow. About half of all melanomas have the genetic aberration the drug targets.

Continue reading Zelboraf Side Effects: Diarrhea & Other Bad Side Effects →

Kymriah Side Effects: Cytokine Release Syndrome, Toxicity, Infections. Last 30 August 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Kymriah cell therapy to treat children and young adults (up to 25 years of age) with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

How is the treatment administered and what side effects should patients be aware of? Apparently, the treatment administration involves the collection of T-cells from the patient, modifying it, and injecting it back. More details from the FDA media release:

The patient’s T-cells are collected and sent to a manufacturing center where they are genetically modified to include a new gene that contains a specific protein (a chimeric antigen receptor or CAR) that directs the T-cells to target and kill leukemia cells that have a specific antigen (CD19) on the surface. Once the cells are modified, they are infused back into the patient to kill the cancer cells.

Continue reading Kymriah Side Effects: Cytokine Release Syndrome, Toxicity, Infections →