Promising news for people with advanced basal cell carcinoma
According to results from the pivotal Phase II ERIVANCE BCC trial, taking vismodegib once a day may be effective for up to 2,000 people suffering from advanced basal cell carcinoma (aBCC) in the UK.
BCC is the most common type of skin cancer in Europe and nowadays there are no approved drugs for advanced BCC available in the UK.
The study showed that vismodegib cured visible lesions or shrank tumors in 30% of patients whose cancer had metastasized and in 43% of patients with locally advanced BCC. The median duration of progression-free survival among patients taking vismodegib was 9.5 months.
Dr John Lear, Consultant Dermatologist at Manchester Royal Infirmary, explained: ‘This is promising news for people with advanced BCC, who until now have had no medicinal treatment options and often have to deal with potentially disfiguring surgery, usually to the face, head and neck, that could result in the removal of an eye or ear. If approved in the UK, vismodegib could set a new standard of care in the treatment of this devastating type of skin cancer.’
Comments
(0)