New Clinical Trial Offers Hope In Battling Against Skin Cancer

Working on a promising lead in the battle against skin cancer, scientists received a boost, when a study showed their technique had some success in first-phase clinical trials.

Scientists testing a cancer pill that blocks a specific cell regulator dubbed the Hedgehog signaling pathway, said the drug shrank some skin cancers in small-scale drug trials.

Researchers Identify New Genetic Mutations Responsible For Deadly Skin Cancer
Drawing on the power of DNA sequencing, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have identified a new group of genetic mutations involved in the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma.

The study, funded by the drug's manufacturers Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche, showed the compound had some success in reducing the size of metastatic basal cell skin cancers.

They are among the most common, but least lethal, forms of the skin cancer.

Details of the study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Boffins Fear That Certain Skin Cancer May be Mediated by Primary Cilia Activity
Tiny, solitary spikes that stick out of nearly every cell in the body play a central role in a type of skin cancer, new research has found.

In the test 33 people were treated with the GDC-0449 compound. Eighteen patients showed tumor shrinkage or an improvement in symptoms without tumor growth, the report stated.

The drug also showed some initial success in tackling one type of brain tumor, although the gains were later reversed, according to a related report published in Science Express.

Thinner 'In Situ' Skin Cancers Not Identified By Patients
Most melanomas detected in a general-practice dermatology clinic were found by dermatologists during full-body skin examinations of patients who had come to the clinic for different

"We know that both of these cancer types have mutations in Hedgehog pathway genes," said Charles Rudin, a cancer expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who was also part of the investigative team.

"Our results with the hedgehog inhibitors could be the starting point for developing a new type of therapy for these intractable cancers."

The hedgehog pathway contains genes that help regulate the development of embryos, but is normally dormant in adults.

Source-AFP
ARU