Meg Farris / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS -- More than 70,000 people in the U.S. will find out they have melanoma this year, a deadly form of skin cancer.
Nearly 9,000 will lose the battle and few others will live for five years.
But now a new drug is offering hope.
Richard, who does not want to use his last name, loves to garden out in the sun at his home in Waterbury, Connecticut. But years ago he was told he had the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma.
"I originally had a melanoma back in 1998 and that was taken care of at the time and I just monitored myself going forward," Richard explained.
But then two years later, worse news. It had spread to his lungs and there were no good treatments then to help him.
"I was devastated," he said. "I was told about a regimen that I could go through that had a very small percentage of success and that was all I had. I went and I took it. It was unsuccessful and at that point in time I was told I had maybe eight or nine months left."
That was back in December 2009.
"Patients with metastatic melanoma really don't have many treatment options. It's a tumor that's not responsive to therapy in most instances. It usually does mean that patients will eventually die from their disease," explained Dr. Anna Pavlick, the director of the NYU Melanoma Program.
But then a medical breakthrough changed Richard's fate.
Dr. Pavlick was testing a new drug for people with inoperable melanoma that had spread to another site in the body. Richard was part of the clinical trial.
And to this day, he's had 95 percent shrinkage in his lung tumor.
"I had that milestone in December. The cancer is not active. It's been that way since December," he said.
Zelboraf was recently FDA approved as the first and only personalized medicine to show improvement in survival of people with inoperable metastatic melanoma. It targets and shuts down a specific mutation that is found in half of the cases of melanoma, controlling growth and spread of the cancer. Now patients are living longer.
Doctors say children need to be educated at a very young age about the dangers of overexposure to the sun and tanning beds.
"There's been a large spike in the incidence of melanoma in the year 2010. There is now one in 54 Americans that get diagnosed each year with melanoma. We've also seen an astronomical spike in the number of women between the ages of 20 and 39 who are now being diagnosed with melanoma compared to the years prior, and many of us are contributing that to tanning bed use," said Dr. Pavlick.
And many don't know melanoma can appear anywhere on the body and in the eyes.
"Melanomas, although most commonly they start in sun-exposed areas due to excessive sun exposure, can also start on 'unsun' exposed areas as well scalp, sinuses, anal rectal area, vaginal area. There are even who can develop ocular melanomas," Dr. Pavlick said.
So get regular check ups and watch for any changes in a mole.
Insurance does pay for this new drug.
Common side effects could include: joint pain, a rash, hair loss, fatigue, nausea, itching, warts and sun sensitivity.
For more on Zelboraf, click here. For more on clinical trials for any illness, click here.
