France.. Encouraging results for a new treatment for the most common form of eye cancer

A new treatment against the most common form of eye cancer in adults has shown encouraging results, according to the Institut Curie, which treats about two-thirds of new cases of this cancer in France.

Uveal melanoma metastasizes (mostly to the liver) in one in three patients.

The number of infections in France is between 500 and 600 annually.

The Curie Institute noted that any truly effective treatment for these metastases was not available until today.

However, a clinical study demonstrated for the first time the effectiveness of a new immunotherapy molecule, "tepentafosb", in relation to the survival of patients with this cancer.

Finally, the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of the third and final phase of the study, which was coordinated in France by a medical oncologist at the Institut Curie, Sophie Birno Neumann.

And it was found from the study that was conducted on 378 patients that 73 percent of those who received "tepentafos" survived for one year, while the percentage reached 59 percent in the other patients.

It was also noted that 31 percent of patients treated with "tepentafos" did not experience any relapse after six months, compared to 19 percent of patients who received other treatments.

Tepentafos stimulates a targeted immune response and can be used in about 45 percent of patients (who have the serotype necessary to stimulate this anti-melanoma immunity).

"These results are very exciting," the statement quoted Dr. Sophie Peperno-Newman as saying.