Melanoma
Targeted Treatment:
Another type of treatment is called targeted therapy. This treatment requires knowledge of specific mutations in the melanoma. For example, in about fifty percent of cases, melanomas contain a mutation in the BRAF gene. The drug Vemurafenib (Zelboraf) has been developed to target cells with the mutation.
About one in two patients that use a BRAF drug show positive response to the treatment. In mutated cells, a change has occurred in the MEK/ERK pathway due to the genetic mutation. The MEK/ERK pathway is thin rope of proteins that passes information from external signals into the cell’s nucleus. One such signal may inform the cell to begin cell division. Rapid, unregulated cell duplication is common in melanoma tumors, and may be caused by the malfunction of this pathway.
Zelboraf seeks to cut off this pathway in cells with the mutation, making the cell incapable of receiving signals that pass along the MEK/ERK pathway. This stops uncontrolled reproduction of the melanoma, and may render it inactive in certain ways. Other BRAF and MEK/ERK targeted drugs include dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) respectfully.
By disrupting the important MEK/ERK communication pathway in tumor cells, scientists and doctors have managed to shut down the cells' funtion and decrease tumor size in roughly half of cases.