Rare Tumors (Apr 2012)
Metastatic melanoma and vemurafenib: novel approaches
Abstract
Metastatic melanoma (MM) presents a treatment challenge to oncologists worldwide. Dacarbazine is the first line chemotherapy treatment for MM, though the overall response rates are very poor. Recently, the v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF) V600 mutation was found to play a main role in MM. This mutation is present in 40-60% of melanoma patients. Vemurafenib is a BRAF kinase inhibitor that showed impressive results in phase I-III trials and was thus recently approved for the treatment of MM. This paper will briefly focus on vemurafenib in the treatment of MM and highlight concerns.
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