As a biochemist with expertise in oncology treatment protocols, there’s a part of me that dreads the beginning of summer. While many of us look forward to more outdoors time, that extra dose of sun exposure comes with a tragic cost for too many Americans.
Despite more awareness of the need for sun protection, skin cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the U.S., and rates of melanoma – by the far the deadliest form of skin cancer – have continued to rise. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 110,000 new melanoma cases in the U.S. are projected this year along with over 8,500 deaths. Unlike most cancers, melanoma is also frequently diagnosed among younger adults, and particularly younger women.
It’s hard not to be discouraged by those trendlines. But heading into this summer, I’m actually more hopeful than ever for patients today and in the future. That’s because remarkable innovations are transforming how melanoma is treated. And the rapid progress on this front is Exhibit A for why advancing U.S. scientific leadership – and defending the policies that power it – needs to be a top priority in Washington and beyond.
In 2011, patients whose melanoma had spread had a median survival rate of less than seven months. Treatment options ranged from chemotherapy that induced limited responses to extremely toxic drugs that few patients could tolerate.
Fast forward to today, and the median survival rate has jumped to more than six years. That incredible leap is largely due to a significant breakthrough last decade: the arrival of the first immunotherapy drugs approved for oncology. Cancer cells wreak havoc on the immune system, undermining the body’s natural defenses against disease; and while chemotherapy further depletes innate immunity, these treatments activate immune cells to recognize and destroy tumors.
This type of therapy has continued to progress in the years since and completely changed what’s possible in melanoma care. Now we’re on the cusp of rewriting the script once again.
Over the past few years, scientists and researchers have been studying the potential for combining immunotherapy in melanoma with mRNA medicines that are customized to counteract each patient’s unique tumor. While immunotherapy alerts the immune system to an active threat, cancer cells are stubbornly evasive. The introduction of mRNA is changing that by effectively providing a roadmap for the body to hunt down the foreign cells.
In June, new data from a clinical study showed that this approach could be a game-changer. As Fox News reported, a combination treatment reduced the risk of death or relapse by half for advanced stage melanoma patients compared to patients who received the immunotherapy alone. An even larger study is now underway that could pave the way for this treatment receiving FDA approval and going to market in the near future.
Stories like these reinforce why maintaining America’s pro-innovation regulatory environment is critical to delivering better options for patients. Some loud voices have pushed for more red tape that could disrupt research inside and outside the lab – but we can’t afford to get in the way of the next great American-led medical discoveries. Considering the leaps we’ve taken in cancer care alone over the past few years, particularly under the Trump administration, it would be tragic to let that momentum slip.
President Trump himself has long spoken of the need to unleash American innovation to keep us at the leading edge of science and technology. With that mindset, there’s nothing stopping us from continuing to push the frontiers of medicine to take on melanoma, other serious cancers, and the chronic disease crisis.
I hope we seize that opportunity for the sake of current melanoma patients and those who most certainly follow. In the meantime, please use your 50 SPF liberally and seriously; even in these times where we are blessed with brilliant innovators, prevention is always preferable to cure.
Trica Flanagan is a bioscientist specializing in immuno-oncology, with some of her work now incorporated into NIH protocols. She is the founder and CEO of Azuza Laboratories.
