At the University of Navarra they have started five clinical trials to combat the most aggressive skin cancer. Four of them are intended for patients with metastatic melanoma and one transplant patients with actinic keratosis (precancerous lesions sun – induced). The trials are patient recruitment phase, which will allow sick people to access the drugs long before marketing.

Three of these new investigations against melanoma include treatment with immunotherapy , which are drugs that have managed to be effective in numerous cancers with advanced disease and metastasis. So far, melanoma is the tumor being the best results. Between 40 and 60 percent of patients respond to immunotherapy , which is a significant improvement over the results obtained with other treatments.

Clinical experience

The strategy being carried out is based on the use of pharmacological treatments that stimulate the patient ‘s immune system so that it is able to recognize and kill tumor cells . Immunotherapy involves one of the main lines of research to combat melanoma.

Melanoma skin cancer is more aggressive . Its incidence in recent years has been increasing, and now is diagnosed in about 9 out of every 100,000 people . Experts say the need to reduce exposure to ultraviolet rays. “Therefore, it is essential to move the population the importance of the prevention of skin cancer because it is possibly one of the most preventable cancers , ” says dermatologist of the University Hospital of Navarra, Irene Palacios.

Leyre Aguado, Dermatologist Clinic, explains that “the survival rate in early melanomas is very high , above 80%, and its treatment is simple, but when diagnosed in advanced stages the situation is complicated, so the prevention is key. “