A novel approach to administer intrathecal immunotherapy (directly into the spinal fluid) and intravenous immunotherapy was safe and improved survival in a subset of patients with leptomeningeal disease from metastatic melanoma, according to interim analyses of a phase I/Ib trial led by researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Roger Lo, professor of medicine, dermatology, and molecular and medical pharmacology and investigator at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, was awarded a $2 million grant from NIH to investigate innovative strategies to prevent drug resistance in melanoma treatment and improve the effectiveness of MAPK inhibitors, a common treatment for patients with melanomas that carry the BRAFV600 mutation.
