Drug shows promise against rare, aggressive Skin Cancer

The intravenous drug, marketed as Keytruda, is already used to treat some advanced cases of melanoma, another dangerous form of skin cancer. The new study tested it against a skin tumor called Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC).
Most people have probably never heard of the cancer, but MCC is deadlier than melanoma, said Dr. Paul Nghiem, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, who led the new study.
When the disease reaches an advanced stage, chemotherapy is an option—but not a good one, Nghiem said.
"Chemotherapy will often shrink the cancer," he said. "But it comes back quickly, and even angrier."
Keytruda (pembrolizumab) is one of a new class of drugs that block a "pathway" called PD-1. That frees up the immune system to attack cancer cells. In the United States, the drug is approved for treating certain cases of lung cancer and advanced melanoma that no longer respond to other drugs.
In the new study, Nghiem's team gave the drug to 26 patients with advanced MCC. Most had metastatic cancer, meaning it had spread beyond lymph nodes near the original skin tumor.
Overall, out of 25 people who were evaluated, 14 patients,or 56 percent, saw their cancer shrink at least partially. In four patients, all signs of the cancer disappeared.