In a nutshell
This study wanted to find out if treating patients who had melanoma cancer that had spread with PV-10 resulted in better outcomes. The study found that treating melanoma tumors that had spread with PV-10 resulted in the tumors being destroyed, with very few side effects.
Some background
Melanoma cancer can commonly spread from the original site of the tumor to other areas and create secondary tumors, called metastases. A way of treating these secondary tumors is to inject medicines that kill cancer cells directly into them. PV-10 is a new medication which kills cancer cells. It is not known if injecting PV-10 into the tumors directly will work to completely remove the secondary tumors.
Methods & findings
This study consisted of 45 patients. Each patient had melanoma cancer which had spread into at least one secondary tumor. The patients had all of their secondary tumors injected with PV-10. This may have happened more than once. The patients were followed after treatment to see how safe it was, and how well it worked. The patients were followed for an average of 22 months.
Overall, 42.2% of the tumors that were injected with PV-10 were completely gone after 22 months. It was noted that an additional 44.4% of tumors showed at least a partial response, where they had shrunk significantly. The patients who had fewer secondary tumors tended to respond better to the treatment.
The bottom line
The study concluded that injecting secondary melanoma tumors with PV-10 resulted in the tumors being eliminated, or significantly reduced.
The fine print
This is a small study, only done in one area. Many more studies will be done investigating this new drug.
Published By :
Surgical oncology
Date :
Mar 12, 2018
