Imatinib for Metastatic Melanoma
Author Information
Author(s): Kim K B, Eton O, Davis D W, Frazier M L, McConkey D J, Diwan A H, Papadopoulos N E, Bedikian A Y, Camacho L H, Ross M I, Cormier J N, Gershenwald J E, Lee J E, Mansfield P F, Billings L A, Ng C S, Charnsangavej C, Bar-Eli M, Johnson M M, Murgo A J, Prieto V G
Primary Institution: The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Hypothesis
Can imatinib be effective in treating patients with metastatic melanoma that express certain protein tyrosine kinases?
Conclusion
Imatinib showed minimal clinical efficacy as a single-agent therapy for metastatic melanoma, with only one patient experiencing a partial response.
Supporting Evidence
- One patient had a partial response lasting 12.8 months.
- Imatinib was fairly well tolerated with no treatment discontinuation due to toxicity.
- Fatigue and oedema were the only significant toxicities occurring in more than 10% of patients.
Takeaway
Doctors tested a medicine called imatinib on people with a type of skin cancer called melanoma, but it didn't work very well for most of them.
Methodology
This was an open-label, phase II clinical trial where patients with metastatic melanoma expressing specific protein tyrosine kinases were treated with imatinib.
Limitations
The study had a small sample size and only one patient showed a significant response, limiting the ability to draw broader conclusions.
Participant Demographics
{"total_patients":22,"treated_patients":21,"male":13,"female":8,"median_age":58,"stage_III":2,"stage_IV":19}
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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