MyMelanoma researcher leads the development of new treatment

Clinical trials into the use of Tebentafusp for metastatic uveal melanoma have been conducted by the University of Oxford and Immunocore. The positive results of the most recent trial mean this drug could now be used in future treatment.

Uveal melanoma is a rare and aggressive form of cancer that affects the eye, and typically has a poor prognosis and has no accepted optimal treatment and management. After the cancer metastases, 50% of patients have life expectancy of less than a year. Tebentafusp has the potential to be the first new therapy to improve the life expectancy of patients in over 40 years.

Previous phase 1 and 2 clinical trials have been conducted into Tebentafusp, a new anti-tumour immune response drug for patients with metastatic melanoma. The results from Immunocore and the University of Oxford, found that this first-of-its-kind treatment showed great promise in helping the immune system fight off melanoma cancers of both the eye and skin. The phase 3 clinical trial for this drug is the first for an affinity optimised T-cell receptor drug, making it the first of its kind.

MyMelanoma Chief Investigator Mark Middleton who has been involved in the clinical development of Tebentafusp for over 10 years says

“It is very exciting that our observations in the first trial of Tebentafusp, that it could make some uveal melanomas shrink, have now been borne out in larger studies. There’s still a way to go but there is every hope that this will prove an option for the treatment of this difficult cancer quite soon”

For more details can be found here.