Researchers in Toulouse are homing in on why some patients with dangerous skin cancers do not respond to cutting-edge immunotherapy treatment, and are exploring ways to overcome this resistance. Globally, skin cancer is the fifth most common cancer for men and seventh for women. About 132,000 cases of melanoma are diagnosed each year, a quarter of which are metastatic cancers that spread. In SA, Discovery Health Medical Scheme recently reported that melanomas were its fifth most common oncology claim in 2017, at an average cost of almost R39,000 a month. But some melanoma cases are more expensive: its second highest payout for a cancer claim was R1m, for a 68-year-old patient with melanoma. SA is also grappling with the complexities of skin cancer and HIV, as untreated HIV suppresses the immune system and increases the risk of melanoma.
While metastatic melanoma survival rates have improved significantly since the advent of immunotherapy drugs that activate the immune system t...
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