Combination treatment, including Bayer's sorafenib, regimen not effective against advanced melanoma; B-MS' ipilimumab good in MM

The combination of two different chemotherapies and a previously approved treatment for kidney and liver cancers is not effective against advanced melanoma, according to results disclosed in an oral presentation today at the 46th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

"With each new study, we learn something important about the treatment of melanoma," said John Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and leader of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's (UPCI) melanoma and skin cancer program. "With this study, we learned that the addition of sorafenib, a molecular inhibitor, to a traditional chemotherapy regimen does not improve patient survival," he noted. Sorafenib is the active ingredient in German drug major Bayer's liver cancer drug Nexavar

The Phase III trial, which was sponsored by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), enrolled 823 patients from seven different sites across the country over 34 months. The primary goal of the study was to determine whether the addition of sorafenib, a molecular targeting agent, would improve survival rates for patients with metastatic melanoma when added to the chemotherapy combination of carboplatin and paclitaxel. Patients either received the chemotherapy combination alone or with sorafenib.