Clinical trial for malignant melanoma launched in Cork
A new clinical trial has been launched in Cork for improved treatment of a form of skin cancer.
Cork Cancer Research Centre (CCRC), which is based in University College Cork (UCC), is running a trial for the treatment of malignant melanoma that aims to significantly improve outcomes for patients with this form of cancer.
The new trial treatment combines Ipilimumab, a Bristol-Myers Squibb drug and tumour Electroporation, which is pioneered at CCRC.
It is the first treatment of its kind and works by opening up cancer cells with the electrical pulses to facilitate the immunotherapy treatment to be even more effective.
Patients eligible to be included in the study will receive the licensed medicine, Ipilimumab, in accordance with its licenced use as a 1st or 2nd line treatment with electrochemotherapy being additionally applied to shrink the skin melanoma nodule.
Principal Investigator on the trial and Clinician and Consultant Medical Oncologist with Mercy and Cork University Hospitals, Dr Derek Power said: “Cancer cells send out signals around the tumour to turn off locally present immune cells, which has, as a result, prevented immunotherapies, like Ipilimumab, from working. Overcoming this immune ‘cloaking’ of the tumour has become the key to making immune therapy work for patients.”
Doctors with patients suitable for this trial should refer them to Dr Power of the Oncology Clinical Trials Unit in Cork University Hospital or Dr Declan Soden of the Cork Cancer Research Centre in UCC.
