The following blurb is from an article in USA Today that captures what I believe is a fairly balanced perspective on the prospects for "ipi," which I wrote about in previous posts.
Tim Turnham, executive director of the Melanoma Research Foundation, says he's especially encouraged about the findings, given that the last new therapy for metastatic melanoma, interleukin-2, was approved 12 years ago. Very little has made a dent in the cancer. "Melanoma has been the place where research goes to die," he says, noting that some patient advocates had begun to dread the annual cancer meeting, knowing that they would most likely hear about another failed drug.
As word leaked out of ipilimumab's promise, Turnham says melanoma patients and their families began clamoring for the drug. Still, Turnham cautions that patients shouldn't get their hopes up. "I think we all know this isn't the answer, but maybe it points the way to an answer," Turnham says. "I don't think we will find a single drug to fix melanoma. It's going to be a combination of drugs. Maybe we can find an immune therapy, a vaccine, and combine it with targeted therapies.. .. This is one time when there will be a little bit of good news. This should galvanize the community and push us all to work faster and harder."
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