Setback for GSK's potential new skin cancer treatment

5th Sep 2013 07:05

GlaxoSmithKline's potential new anti-cancer treatment for patients with melanoma has suffered a significant setback in clinical trials.The drugs giant said that independent analysis of its third phase trials of its MAGE-A3 cancer immunotherapeutic product showed that it did not significantly extend disease free survival when compared to a placebo.The trial has been testing the efficiency and safety of the treatment in patients with stage IIIB/C melanoma who have had had their tumours surgically removed. GSK said it would continue the trial to see if the treatment helped other patients.Vincent Richard, Senior Vice-President and Head of Immunotherapeutics at GSK Vaccines, said the group remained committed to "identifying a patient population who may benefit from this investigational treatment".GSK is still testing the same treatment in another study of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The first batch of data is expected in the first half of 2014.TB