GLG News by Physicians who Treat Malignant Melanoma (US)

A single payer, national system does work, but may not necessarily be in the best interest of all parties.   Yes this type of system is 'free' to the users, but is funded through higher taxes than paid in the US.

This article is important in that it is a good summary of the current knowledge and treatment methods for atopic dermatitis for pediatricians. It is needed in that this condition is inadequately treated, and a periodic refresher is needed for all physicians. Both pharmacologic and non pharmacologic...

This article is important in that it makes the public aware that they should avoid all unlicensed persons who re injecting any substance into their bodies. These especially include those injecting silicone mixtures. The public will become more aware and should have more confidence in licensed practitioners...

Oncophage is an autologous (or derived directly from a patient's own tumor cells) vaccine that may promote the generation of an effective anti-tumor immune response when re-injected into patients. Trials in melanoma and renal cell cancer failed to meet their primary endpoints and approval has not been...

The Data Safety Monitoring Board halted the Phase III randomized open label trial comparing the Pfizer anti-CTLA4 antibody, tremelimumab, to "standard" (and generally ineffective) chemotherapy for metastatic melanoma. The Board has reported that there is no statistical difference between the primary...

So, now CTLA4 blockade, touted as the next big thing in melanoma, runs into the same thing as a host of other agents with promising phase II activity: failure at the phase III level.  Pfizer's randomized phase III of tremelimumab versus the fool's gold standard dacarabzine/DTIC was...

This drug, which has just entered Phase I testing, is very interesting because it combines IL-12, which has shown both activity and significant toxicity, with a targeting antibody. Hopefully, this targeting antibody will minimize the toxicity of IL-12 on or in normal tissues.

The failure of this study has wide ranging implications for Pfizer and other melanoma trials. This drug, which only a few years ago caused much excitement in the melanoma oncology community, failed to show any survival benefit in this Phase III trial, when compared to standard, but generally ineffective,...

 This article is important in that it lays to rest a misconception that long term repeated use of Botox ( Allergan) leads to decreased efficacy. Efficacy was maintained, and no neutralizing antibodies were found to Botox. This will reassure most users of Botox, and patients as well.

 This article is important in that it defined the incidence of serious skin reactions to the three common TNF antagonists- Enbrel, Humira, and Remicade. The incidence is relatively low in comparison to the numbers of patients treated. Any foreign protein has the potential for eliciting these reactions,...