Source: Dr. Jay Adlersberg
NEW YORK (WABC) -- A new treatment can extend the life of patients with melanoma skin cancer, which has spread to other parts of the body.
The breakthrough treatment came from a lab. Bruce Shewmaker, who is 64 years old, and his family put their fate in the lab's hands. In 2000, Shewmaker found a malignant melanoma.
"It started with just a blemish on my foot that had been there for 10 years and & one day it changed," Shewmaker said.
The cancer was removed surgically and he had 6 good years. However, by 2006, the cancer returned and was found in his lungs. Chemotherapy and other treatments failed. Each failure was a blow to Shewmaker.
"It's hard to maintain your hope that you're going to get through this," he said.
Getting through late stage cancer was also the hope of Dr. Jim Allison of Memorial Sloan Kettering Center. He did experiments in mice with late stage melanoma, using a new untested drug. After some disappointments, one day he was startled.
"In one group of mice the tumors quit growing and it was a eureka moment for sure, it was very exciting," he said.
Dr. Allison's experiments led to a drug for humans called Ipilimumab, IPI for short.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
~Charles Darwin~
Take Care,
Jimmy B
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