June 6th, 2011

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Reports:

When Robert Harsh learned that his cancer treatments weren’t working, he stocked up on birthday cards and valentines so he could still tell his wife and three children after he was gone how much he loved them.

Two years later, the 43-year-old Maryland state trooper is still celebrating his kids’ birthdays in person, thanks to a new drug that has erased all evidence of his melanoma. The disease had spread from a small skin mole to multiple sites around his lungs.

The drug that has kept Harsh alive, called Yervoy, is the first approved therapy to clearly prolong life for patients with metastatic melanoma, says the Food and Drug Administration, which approved the therapy in March.

Yervoy is one of about a dozen melanoma therapies that, for the first time, give doctors and patients reason to hope, said Timothy Turnham of the Melanoma Research Foundation.

Melanoma is difficult to treat, rarely responds to traditional chemotherapy and often kills within six to nine months. Until recently, the best therapy available helped only about 15 percent of patients.

More than 68,000 Americans were diagnosed with melanoma last year, and about 8,700 died, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Read the rest of the story at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review