MONDAY, Oct. 1 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with metastatic melanoma with BRAF V600 mutations, combination therapy with a selective BRAF inhibitor (dabrafenib) and a mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor (trametinib) is tolerable and active, according to a study published online Sept. 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with presentation at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology, held from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 in Vienna.
Keith T. Flaherty, M.D., from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston, and colleagues conducted an open-label phase 1 and 2 study involving 247 patients with metastatic melanoma and BRAF V600 mutations. The pharmacokinetic activity and safety of oral dabrafenib and trametinib was assessed in 85 patients, and 162 patients were randomly allocated to either dabrafenib plus trametinib or dabrafenib monotherapy. Read More...