Drug doubles melanoma treatment
The fight against cancer will be bolstered today with the approval of a drug that is twice as effective as other immune-based melanoma drugs, but it could take years before it becomes affordable.
Keytruda, to be registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration today, will treat the most deadly form of skin cancer, known as advanced metastatic melanoma.
It is the first anti-PD-1 immunotherapy approved in Australia and it uses the body's own immune system to attack melanoma cells.
Cancer Council Professor of Clinical Cancer Research Michael Millward said it was one of the most promising treatments developed for cancer in the past decade. But it was out of reach for most patients because it was not yet on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
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Professor Millward called for its urgent inclusion on the PBS because its price was prohibitively expensive. A year of treatment could cost several hundred thousand dollars.
"It has shown good control in making tumours shrink or disappear in about a third of patients," Professor Millward said.
"The best previous immune drugs work on 10 to 15 per cent of patients and had more side effects. It is important to stress that Keytruda does not work for everyone."
He said many other melanoma-fighting drugs cause nasty side effects, but Keytruda did not seem to affect patients in this way.
Chief executive of Melanoma Australia Clinton Heal backed calls for urgent inclusion on the PBS, claiming Australian had one of the highest incidence of melanoma in the world.
He said one in 24 Australian men and one in 14 Australian women would get the skin cancer.
Mr Heal, who was first diagnosed with melanoma more than 10 years ago, said it would add to quality of life for those living under the shadow of melanoma.
"You live with the understanding that it could reappear at any time," he said.
Professor Grant McArthur, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, said it could benefit more than 1000 Australians who battled advanced melanoma each year. Clinical trials started three years ago and Keytruda is being investigated for use in other cancers.
