Has a Cure for Cancer Truly Been Found?

Uproar in the Medical World: A new international study published on the "Walla" site reveals that a combination of two different drugs for cancer can shrink tumors by nearly 60%, in individuals suffering from advanced melanoma—a particularly deadly form of skin cancer.

The study, presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, addresses the treatment of advanced melanoma, whose prevalence is steadily increasing due to a combination of factors, including sun exposure, climate, and genetics.

Findings from the study, conducted on 945 patients, show that the combination of the drugs Ipilimuma and nivolumab successfully reduced the tumors by a third within an average time of a year in more than half of the patients (58%).

Additionally, the study was published in the scientific journal New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists behind it claim that it is based on the method of immunotherapy, which encourages the immune system itself to fight cancer, as opposed to many other treatments offered to patients that suppress the system. It seems that immunotherapy is a rapidly developing field of research yielding impressive results, which for some patients are groundbreaking.

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In a related interview with the BBC, Dr. James Larkin, one of the UK's leading cancer researchers, stated that "by administering these drugs together, the patient’s immune system gets an additional check, allowing it to detect tumors it previously did not recognize or that evaded it, and destroy them." He further noted that previous drugs and studies failed to surpass a 50% shrinkage rate, making these findings especially encouraging.

However, there is a significant caveat: the combination of drugs is difficult for many patients, often causing severe side effects such as vomiting, diarrhea, and fatigue, affecting more than half of the patients during the study. In comparison, treatment with just one of the drugs (ipilimumab) affected only about a quarter of the patients and is recognized as the first immunotherapy treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Furthermore, it is considered a "rich person's drug," with a current annual cost estimated at hundreds of thousands of shekels.

For now, identifying patients with the best recovery prospects from aggressive cancer seems to be the key factor in the fight against melanoma, and perhaps in the future, against other forms of cancer as well.