Hope for Melanoma

 

       Becky Herry, RN, spoke about her journey since being diagnosed with melanoma . She manages the Veterans Services program at LifeSpan and has had her story featured in news stories and films.

            Bee began began by giving us an overview of Becky’s journey since she was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma.  She joined a clinical trial at California Pacific Medical Center which was unsuccessful,l then joined another one which was successful.  She says she was lucky that in the past couple of years there have been four new drugs approved for melanoma, one of which worked for her.  However, the incidence of melanoma is increasing. A 55 yr old male used to be the typical patient; now the newest demographic is young affluent white women.

            She said that new clinical trials don’t include a placebo.. you either get the standard for care or the trial drug. You are monitored very closely but you are not in control of your own treatment. Jimmy Carter was one example of someone who was diagnosed in stage 4 also but because of the new drugs he has been successfully treated.

            Targeted immunotherapy is the goal of the new drugs, as opposed to chemotherapy which kills all rapidly dividing cells. The next stage is to identify which patients will respond to which drugs. These drugs are very expensive costing from $7000 per infusion.  New treatments might cost $1 million a year.

            Becky also reviewed risk factors for melanoma. There is some correlation with being in the sun.  Number of moles, skin type and genetics are also all risk factors. There is also a link between melanoma and breast cancer.  There was a lively discussion about melanoma risk factors and personal histories and clinical trial protocols.

She concluded by stressing that you should be aware of your skin and changes in moles. She would suggest taking a picture of any suspicious moles and noticing irregular borders, bleeding or itching, or two different colors etc.