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| Dr. Lynn Schuchter |
Relentless. That word was used a lot at the Eighth Annual Focus on Melanoma Conference sponsored by Penn's Abramson Cancer Center (ACC). It was the word Lynn Schuchter, MD, used to describe Lorraine Gordon's quest to educate patients and physicians about melanoma and its treatment. Lorraine received the ACC Advocacy Award at the conference. *
Relentless. It has also been used to describe melanoma, a disease that for many years has resisted all attempts to improve its treatment and outcomes: until now. The clear message that Dr. Schuchter and her colleagues delivered to the more than 300 conference attendees is that the explosion of new knowledge and new treatments for melanoma are "changing the landscape" for patients at every stage of the disease: especially for those patients with advanced or metastatic melanoma.
Oncologists are rightfully wary about expressing too much enthusiasm for emerging new therapies. They have seen too many promising clinical trials end in disappointment. Physicians know that progress, when it does occur, is frequently measured in added weeks or months of life, not cures. They are keenly aware that even the most positive results are tempered by the reality that behind every curve lurks the problem of acquired drug resistance, the seemingly inevitable ability of cancer cells to outsmart the approaches used to stop their growth. But this time, the excitement is real. The optimism is grounded in the growing body of evidence from clinical trials that employ new knowledge and new agents.
As Dr. Schuchter's timeline indicated, progress has been frustratingly slow and elusive, dating all the way back to the identification of the first melanoma patient in the United States in the late 1800s. In fact, not a single new drug had been approved by the FDA for treating melanoma in more than 20 years. If surgery failed to eliminate the melanoma, interferon and interleukin, the mainstays of therapy for metastatic disease, were both highly toxic and limited in their effectiveness.
That scenario has changed dramatically in the last five years with the introduction and approval of three new agents with demonstrated effectiveness in treating advanced and high-risk melanoma. The future is even brighter with the prospect of several new drugs currently in the research pipeline, two of which have reported remarkably promising results from clinical trials in 2011 alone.
The Value of Cancer Education
Just 20, or even 10 years ago, it was very difficult to find information about melanoma or its treatment. Today, the problem is no longer getting information; it is getting good information, and even more so being able to interpret it. The value of an event such as the Focus On Melanoma conference is having an enormous amount of cancer information and education all in one place. The Focus On conferences, sponsored by the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, allows patients and families to get informed and interact with nationally recognized leaders in the clinical oncology and research fields.
A conference like this illustrates the ongoing, irreducible need for patients and their health care teams to interact, to communicate, and to merge information with perspective.
For more information, view the Focus On Melanoma conference video and Melanoma Treatment: A Patient Video Guide, on the ACC website.
* Lorraine Gordon is the wife of Roger A. Gordon, who lost his battle with melanoma. An educational fund was created in his name at the Abramson Cancer Center. Money from the fund was used to create a melanoma awareness brochure and treatment video.
Learn more about melanoma treatment at Penn Medicine.