New Hope For Melanoma Cancer

Aug. 16 - KGO (KGO) -- Melanoma accounts for just a fraction of skin cancer cases, but it is often fatal, and is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in their late 20's. Once it spreads, there are few treatment options but now there's hope: Melanoma vaccines are being tested at Stanford.

Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer. It accounts for just 5% of skin cancer cases, but nearly 3/4 of the fatalities. Once it's spread, there are few treatment options. Melanoma is now the leading cause of cancer related death for women in their late 20's. But there is hope in the form of immunotherapy. Clinical trials of melanoma vaccines are underway at Stanford Hospital and Clinics.

76 year old Louise Copeland has stage 4 melanoma, skin cancer that's spread to her lymph nodes and lungs. Her diagnosis came last spring. By the fall, she was part of clinical trial at Stanford Cancer Center, taking a melanoma vaccine.

Louise Copeland, Melanoma patient: "I figured what the heck, I might as well do it, I didn't really want chemo, no."

Daniel Chen, M.D., Ph.D., "Once it spreads from the skin into the lymph nodes, or beyond, its a bad disease, its not a disease we have good treatments for."

Dr. Daniel Chen is a medical oncologist specializing in melanoma at Stanford Cancer Center. He's also a clinical scientist at Genentech.

Dr. Daniel Chen: "A vaccine boosts an immune response to try to attack those cancer cells wherever they are."

Louise responded well to the shots, which she received over the course of 8 weeks. The normally fast-growing and aggressive disease stopped spreading.

Patti Soiseth, Louise's daughter: "I would call the day after the vaccine and I'd say, okay, expecting her to. And she'd say I'm outside working on the yard, I mean, it never affected her adversely, you know, it never made her feel bad."

But not all patients' immune systems react as well as Louise's did. Dr. Chen has developed a biochip platform that allows scientists to actually measure a patient's immune response.

Dr. Daniel Chen: "What we've been able to do is take these cells from the patient, immediately look at them on the chip, those cells are still alive and essentially they get to show us what they can do."

The top and bottom row here are from two different patients. Both have immune cells that recognize melanoma. But only one shows an active response the red blotches are t-cells fighting the cancer.

Dr. Daniel Chen: "For us to really succeed here, we need to understand why some patients have good responses."

Brad MacMillin is one of those patients who had an incredible response to the immunotherapy. His battle against melanoma began in 2001 with a strange spot on his foot.

Brad MacMillin, melanoma patient: "When I first saw it, I neglected it for many months, it was a dark spot on the heal of my foot and I actually thought it was a blood blister."

He had surgery and interferon treatment, but the cancer recurred 15 months later.

Brad Macmillin: "At that point I really had no treatment options, my only option was to have the surgery and hope it would not come back yet again, so my only option really was to seek out experimental treatments."

Dr. Daniel Chen: "Brad had one of the most exciting responses to immunotherapy that certainly I have ever seen."

Brad thought he'd beaten it. He was cancer free for several years. But just last month a scan revealed the melanoma was back in one of his lymph nodes.

Brad Macmillin: "Even though the vaccine didn't necessarily cure me, it certainly slowed it down and kept me disease free for 3 and a half years, which in itself is very impressive."

He's in the process now of searching for another clinical trial with an immunotherapy focus.

Dr. Daniel Chen: "Clearly Brad's immune system is capable of responding to the melanoma."

Louise Copeland is also weighing other treatment options, her latest scan showed signs of growth on one cancerous lesion in her lung. Still, the vaccine therapy served her well. She had nearly a year without her disease progressing. Without the vaccine, her cancer would have likely spread within two months. For Dr. Chen, it's about bridging science with patient care and giving his patients the very best shot at beating this deadly disease.

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