BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

The next battle line against melanoma

January 9, 2014 8:00 AM UTC

Boston and Los Angeles researchers have painted the best portrait to date of the resistance mutations that arise from treating melanoma with BRAF and MEK inhibitors.1-4 Although the resistance pathways were known, the new information on the specific activating mutations could translate to improved drug combinations tailored for individual patients.

The melanoma space has undergone a dramatic shift in the last two years, as the long-standing first-line chemotherapeutic dacarbazine was supplanted following the 2012 approval of Zelboraf vemurafenib, a selective BRAF inhibitor from Roche, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. The FDA approved a second BRAF inhibitor, GlaxoSmithKline plc's Tafinlar dabrafenib (GSK2118436), in 2013...