Six month PFS in Ph I melanoma study of Roche's BRAF drug

Swiss drug major Roche and US partner Plexxikon reported strong interim results from a Phase I study of PLX4032 (R7204) an oral treatment for  patients with advanced melanoma whose cancer harbors the BRAF mutation,  at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando,  Florida.

Patients treated with PLX4032 lived for a median of six months without  their disease getting worse and more than half experienced significant  shrinkage of their tumors. This included patients where the cancer had  spread to the liver, lung and bone. Historically, less than 5% of  metastatic melanoma patients are still alive five years after diagnosis.

PLX4032 works in a novel way, by selectively targeting and destroying  tumor cells carrying the BRAF mutation, which is an important mediator  of cell growth and division, but when mutated, is known to cause 60% of  melanomas, the most deadly form of skin cancer, and approximately 8% of  all solid tumors.