Cancers, Vol. 12, Pages 482: Current Advances in the Treatment of BRAF-Mutant Melanoma

Cancers, Vol. 12, Pages 482: Current Advances in the Treatment of BRAF-Mutant Melanoma Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers12020482 Authors: Hima Yacoub Mishra White Long Alanazi Garrett Melanoma is the most lethal form of skin cancer. Melanoma is usually curable with surgery if detected early, however, treatment options for patients with metastatic melanoma are limited and the five-year survival rate for metastatic melanoma had been 15–20% before the advent of immunotherapy. Treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors has increased long-term survival outcomes in patients with advanced melanoma to as high as 50% although individual response can vary greatly. A mutation within the MAPK pathway leads to uncontrollable growth and ultimately develops into cancer. The most common driver mutation that leads to this characteristic overactivation in the MAPK pathway is the B-RAF mutation. Current combinations of BRAF and MEK inhibitors that have demonstrated improved patient outcomes include dabrafenib with trametinib, vemurafenib with cobimetinib or encorafenib with binimetinib. Treatment with BRAF and MEK inhibitors has met challenges as patient responses began to drop due to the development of resistance to these inhibitors which paved the way for development of immunotherapies and other small molecule inhibitor approaches to address this. Resistance to these inhibitors continues to push the need to expand our understanding of novel mechanisms ...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research