Yervoy (ipilimumab) which is marketed by New York City-based Bristol-Myers Squibb gained the US Food and Drug (FDA) approval for treatment of late-stage metastatic melanoma skin cancer. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer according to the National Cancer Institute. In 2010, there were around 8,700 people that died from melanoma skin cancer.
Yervoy is the first therapy treatment to show that it has extended the life of people diagnosed with last-stage melanoma and to be approved by the FDA. The Yervoy drug treatment is given intravenously.
The trial study found that melanoma patients taking Yervoy along with an experimental tumor vaccine gp100 had lived an average of 10 months, while the group that received only the experimental tumor vaccine lived an average of 6.5 months.
Side effects of Yervoy reported were fatigue, diarrhea, skin rash, endocrine deficiencies (gland or hormone), and inflammation of the intestines (colitis). There were patients that suffered severe to fatal autoimmune reactions in 12.0 percent who received Yervoy. The treatments were stopped for those melanoma patients during the study. It took several weeks for the patients that did respond to the Yervoy treatment to see improvements.
BY: N Wilson
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