Latest BRAF Stories

BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- At its R&D Investor event earlier today, Novartis provided an update on the clinical development strategy for MEK162 (ARRY-162). Novartis intends to initiate pivotal trials in patients with NRAS mutant melanoma during 2013, with the goal of regulatory submissions on or after 2016. In addition, Novartis announced plans to pursue clinical development in combination with a Raf inhibitor, in BRAF mutant melanoma, with regulatory...

GlaxoSmithKline is experimenting with a new combination of cancer medications; Petra Rietschel, MD encourages such exploration. White Plains, New York (PRWEB) October 24, 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek reports that GlaxoSmithKline Plc has combined two medications designed to treat melanoma in an effort to slow the growth of the cancer. According to the article, a study has found that this combination has succeeded in limiting the progression of the disease more successfully than a...

Promising new data from trials aimed at delaying resistance to BRAF inhibitors Promising new data on drug combinations to treat metastatic melanoma are presented at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. The phase I and II trials focus on combining drugs to slow the development of resistance to drugs that inhibit BRAF, a gene that is mutated in about half of melanomas. Earlier trials with drugs that target BRAF generated excitement for their...

SEATTLE, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Oncothyreon Inc. (Nasdaq: ONTY) today announced the initiation of a Phase 1/2 trial of PX-866 in combination with vemurafenib (Zelboraf®).  PX-866 is Oncothyreon's investigational small molecule compound designed to inhibit the activity of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI-3K), a component of an important cell survival signaling pathway.  Vemurafenib is a kinase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic melanoma...

TUCSON, Ariz., May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Ventana), a member of the Roche Group, has signed an exclusive license agreement with the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) and University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany to commercialize a novel immunohistochemistry (IHC) primary antibody developed by researchers Andreas von Deimling, MD, Hanswalter Zentgraf, PhD and David Capper, MD, to detect the V600E BRAF mutation...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Some say the number of cases is growing at an epidemic rate! In fact, melanoma is the fastest growing cancer in the U.S. Now, a new study shows the drug, dabrafenib, has been shown to have the most activity of any systematic treatment to date against secondary melanoma tumours in the brain. A phase 1 trial shows the new drug causes substantial shrinking of metastatic tumours in patients. Dabrafenib blocks the activity of the cancer-causing mutated form of the BRAF...

3-pronged study reveals high response rate in other advanced melanoma patients and activity in multiple cancers An experimental drug targeting a common mutation in melanoma successfully shrank tumors that spread to the brain in nine out of 10 patients in part of an international phase I clinical trial report in the May 18 issue of The Lancet. The drug dabrafenib, which targets the Val600 BRAF mutation that is active in half of melanoma cases, also cut the size of tumors in 25 of 36...

SAN DIEGO and JERUSALEM, May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambit Biosciences and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA) ("Teva") today announced the clearance of an Investigational New Drug application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for CEP-32496, a novel BRAF (V600E) kinase inhibitor. The IND filing was based upon promising therapeutic potential for this agent, as evidenced by data revealed in recent publications in the Journal of Medicinal...

The human body does a great job of generating new cells to replace dead ones but it is not perfect. Cells need to communicate with or signal to each other to decide when to generate new cells. Communication or signaling errors in cells lead to uncontrolled cell growth and are the basis of many cancers. At The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, scientists have made a key discovery in cell signaling that is relevant to the fight against melanoma...

Genetic profiling helps find answers to melanoma drug resistance At Moffitt Cancer Center, patients with stage III and IV unresectable melanoma are now routinely genetically profiled for several gene mutations, including the BRAF gene, a known driver oncogene for melanoma. Research has shown that mutations in the BRAF gene determine sensitivity or resistance to a class of drugs that are BRAF inhibitors. "We have found that a large number of patients with melanoma who have the BRAF gene...