A novel vaccine for melanoma, the fastest spreading and most fatal of all skin cancers, is entering Phase III clinical trials at UAB and a handful of other major centers in the United States.
"Patients with metastatic melanoma have a five-year survival rate of less than 5 percent, and even though combination chemotherapy can induce the disease to regress it is rarely a cure," says oncologist Robert Conry, M.D., who heads the trial at UAB's Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We seek to determine the effectiveness of the gp100 peptide vaccine when used in combination with an immune boosting product named high-dose interleukin-2."
Since 1985, melanoma has increased in the United States 4 percent per year.
Contact Hank Black, Media Relations, 205-934-8938 or [email protected].
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