In a large number of countries, skin cancer is one of the most common medical conditions a person can have. This is why doctors and scientists have been working together for the past couple of years in order to develop an effective way of eradicating this disease in the hopes that they can help thousands upon thousands of patients worldwide.
According to reports from the Guardian, the National Health Service or NHS in the United Kingdom has now been approved for the combined use of two immunotherapy drugs to help treat skin cancer patients. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved the use of nivolumab combined with ipilimumab in NHS-governed territories within just a few months of the mixture being allowed for use.
"After one of the fastest drug appraisals Nice has carried out, these promising new immunotherapy treatments for advanced melanoma look set to significantly extend the life of people with the condition," says Prof. Carole Longson. "The evidence we examined was very promising and I know further trials are ongoing which have also released encouraging data," adds Longson.
The use of the combination of nivolumab combined with ipilimumab has made tumors completely disappear in nearly a quarter (22%) of the skin cancer patients who participated in the clinical trails for the drug combination. According to Daily Mail medical correspondent Ben Spencer, this revolutionary skin cancer treatment has the potential to "wipe out" aggressive tumors.
Patients who suffer from terminal skin cancer are actually only expected to live for only a few months. Luckily, 69% of patients who underwent trials for this new treatment survived for two more years. Nivolumab and ipilimumab can harness the body's own immune system and use it to battle potentially life-threatening cancer. Doctors have described this advancement as a giant step forward in the field of medicine.
