Phase II results presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2012 Congress showed a 3.6-month improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) for patients receiving both the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib and trametinib, a MEK inhibitor, compared to those receiving dabrafenib alone.
PFS was 9.4 months for patients who received dabrafenib plus trametinib compared to 5.8 months in patients who received dabrafenib alone (HR = 0.39, P < .0001), according to Georgina Long, MD, of the Westmead Hospital and the Melanoma Institute Australia at the University of Sydney, who presented the study at ESMO. Response rates were 75% for those in the combination group compared to 54% in the monotherapy group (P = .026). The median duration of response was 10.5 months with the combination compared to 5.6 months for the BRAF monotherapy. The results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Read More...