At a meeting of the European Cancer Organization in Barcelon, Spain Synta Pharmaceuticals announced promising new research in the area of skin cancer treatments.
The drug, STA-4783, may be able to overload cancer cells with oxygen containing chemicals causing the cells to essentially self-destruct and die. The potential is there for the drug to be used against other cancers such as pancreatic or ovarian as they already have naturally elevated levels of oxygen. This study, however, focused on skin cancer as melanoma tumors are particularly deadly.
Synta Pharmaceuticals is expected to conduct a larger study with more than 600 patients at 150 cancer centers.
"Patients with advanced melanoma really do not have a lot of options," Dr. Anthony Williams, V.P. of clinical research at Synta said. "We only get one chance to save patients' lives, and this may be a good starting point."
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