Medical Moment: Therapy for metastatic cancer

Just over 7,000 people will die from metastatic melanoma this year.

Over the past decade, doctors have used immunotherapy -- treatments that rev up the immune system -- to successfully treat melanoma patients. But immunotherapy doesn’t work for everyone. Now, researchers are testing a new combination of therapies they say may be key to wiping out metastatic cancer.

Every hour in the United States, one person dies of Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Doctors have had success for the past ten years with a treatment called immunotherapy, a treatment that uses parts of the body’s own immune system to fight cancer.

Now scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Wisconsin-Madison are testing a combination of targeted radiation, given by injection, with immunotherapy.

The researchers tested the therapy in mice and found that even when the mice were given a low dose of radiotherapy, their immune systems revved up and wiped out the cancer. Scientists say they plan to apply for FDA approval to conduct human clinical trials on the combination therapy.

In addition to testing the combination in mice with cancer that has spread, researchers also tested the treatment in pet dogs who had naturally-occurring metastatic cancer. The dogs also tolerated the treatment well, without toxic side effects. The researchers hope to begin human trials in the next year or two.

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