FIGHTING MELANOMA
Each year, up to 50,000 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed in the United States. Here's how researchers have found a way to destroy the cancer and save lives.
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Each year, nearly 10,000 Americans will die from the deadly skin cancer, melanoma.
Steven Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
"Melanoma is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the United States."
Doctor Steven Rosenberg may not be able to slow the growing number of cases, but he is hoping to slow the number of people who die from the disease.
Steven Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief of Surgery
National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, MD
"Virtually no treatments are capable of curing it and that's where the new treatments that we've developed can have some effectiveness."
That new treatment is changing the future of some skin cancer patients. Doctors remove immune cells from a patient's tumor. The cells that can recognize the cancer the best are then grown in the lab.
Steven Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
"And then we give those cells back to the patient in very large numbers where they can fight and destroy the cancer."
The technique is called adoptive transfer. The cancer-fighting cells can survive and actually grow inside the body.
In an early study, nearly half of the 13 patients - who had failed all other treatments - showed cancer regression. In 4patients, the tumors disappeared.
Steven Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
"A young 17-year-old boy - who had melanoma throughout his body - he was the first patient to receive this new treatment two and a half years ago and he's still completely disease-free and living normally."
31-year-old Michael Barbato was diagnosed in 1999. No therapy has helped. Today, he'll undergo this experimental treatment.
Michael Barbato
"It's been such a long journey with this cancer, and I'm excited to get the chance to try."
Michael Barbato
Has melanoma
"This is a great opportunity of life."
The technique is highly experimental and is currently only offered to melanoma patients who have failed other treatments. Doctor Rosenberg says it's too early to tell if the treatment will work for Michael long-term, but at the time this interview was done, Michael was doing fine.
BACKGROUND: Melanoma is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the United States. Each year, up to 50,000 new cases of the cancer are diagnosed in this country and nearly 10,000 people die from the disease. Melanoma accounts for about 4 percent of skin cancer cases, but it causes about 79 percent of skin cancer deaths.
RISK FACTORS: According to the American Cancer Society, researchers do not know exactly what causes melanoma, but they do know that certain risk factors are linked to the disease:
- Moles:
- Moles are benign (non-cancerous) skin tumors. People with lots of moles, and those who have some large moles, have an increased risk for melanoma.
- Fair skin:
- Fair skin, freckling, and light hair increases the risk of melanoma.
- Family history:
- Around 10 percent of people with melanoma have a close relative (mother, father, brother, sister, child) with the disease.
- Immune suppression:
- People who have been treated with medicines that suppress the immune system, such as transplant patients, have an increased risk of developing melanoma.
- UV radiation:
- Too much exposure to UV radiation is a risk factor for melanoma. The main source of such radiation is sunlight. Tanning lamps are another source.
- Age:
- About half of melanomas occur in people over age 50, but younger people can also get melanoma.
- Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP):
- This is a rare, inherited condition. People with XP are less able to repair damage caused by sunlight and are at greater risk of melanoma.
NEW HOPE: Researchers from the National Cancer Institute believe they have found a novel way to fight melanoma. The technique, known as adoptive transfer, involves raising a patient's immune cells in the laboratory to recognize and fight the patient's own tumor. The cells are then injected back into the body. The technique is highly experimental and involves the body's T cells, which are responsible for finding and attacking foreign cells that have entered the body. In their study, researchers extracted some of these cells from 13 patients with melanoma and exposed them in the lab to a small segment of the patient's cancerous tumor. The cells learned to recognize the tumor fragment as a foreign body and fight it. The cells were able to live and actually grow inside the patient's body, providing enough cells to replace the patient's existing immune system. In 6 of the 13 patients, the treatment resulted in at least a 50-percent shrinkage of the tumors with no new tumors forming. In four patients, the tumors disappeared. Steven Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., from the National Cancer Institute, says, "For the first time, we've been able to get the cells that we give to survive and grow inside the body. When it does that, it attacks the cancer and causes the cancer to shrink." Of the treatment, he says, "It's very early in the development of this, but it's one that has us quite excited." Dr. Rosenberg says the treatment is highly experimental. In the future, he says it may be studied in other cancers such as breast, ovarian, prostate and lung cancer.
National Cancer Institute
Surgery Branch
Building 10, Room 2B42
Bethesda, MD 20892
(301) 496-0997
Copyright © 2003 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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