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Does being BRAF possative affect YERVOY treatment?
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Does being BRAF possative affect YERVOY treatment?

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Does being BRAF possative affect YERVOY treatment?

  • Post
    • May 6, 2014 at 3:56 am
    MixtaJones
    Participant

      I am starting YERVOY on Friday and just found out today that I am BRAF possative. I was wondering if this affects the treatment or if there is anything else I should be looking into? The nurse that called me said it would not change the treatment because they use YERVOY either way.

      I am also looking for more info on being BRAF possative. I have not found much info besides some sites saying it makes the Melanoma harder to fight.

      Thanks!

    Viewing 2 reply threads
    • Replies
        • May 6, 2014 at 8:24 am
        tcell
        Participant

          Hi,

          I am stage IV BRAF positive. 50% of people with Melanoma are BRAF positive and they have one big advantage. BRAF is a known target for 2 medications, Tafinlar by GSK and Zelboraf by Roche. In the same signal chain there is also a thing called MEK that can be targeted by another medicaiton called MEKINIST. Tafinlar and Mekinist can be prescribed as combination therapy in the US and have proven to win people are median 10.5 months. This means that some people can benefit several years from the combo, others only a few months. This means that the advantage is that they have relatively few and manageable side effects (compared to e.g. IPI) but seem to not have the potential for a long term soltuion for many patients.About 90% of patients repsond to it and a major part of them show very fast tumor shrinkage.

          In your case this means that these meds could be an option right now or at any time in the course of your therapy. Some people even take it in parallel to Ipi but this combination has shown to potentially cause severe liver toxicity.

          • May 6, 2014 at 8:24 am
          tcell
          Participant

            Hi,

            I am stage IV BRAF positive. 50% of people with Melanoma are BRAF positive and they have one big advantage. BRAF is a known target for 2 medications, Tafinlar by GSK and Zelboraf by Roche. In the same signal chain there is also a thing called MEK that can be targeted by another medicaiton called MEKINIST. Tafinlar and Mekinist can be prescribed as combination therapy in the US and have proven to win people are median 10.5 months. This means that some people can benefit several years from the combo, others only a few months. This means that the advantage is that they have relatively few and manageable side effects (compared to e.g. IPI) but seem to not have the potential for a long term soltuion for many patients.About 90% of patients repsond to it and a major part of them show very fast tumor shrinkage.

            In your case this means that these meds could be an option right now or at any time in the course of your therapy. Some people even take it in parallel to Ipi but this combination has shown to potentially cause severe liver toxicity.

            • May 6, 2014 at 8:24 am
            tcell
            Participant

              Hi,

              I am stage IV BRAF positive. 50% of people with Melanoma are BRAF positive and they have one big advantage. BRAF is a known target for 2 medications, Tafinlar by GSK and Zelboraf by Roche. In the same signal chain there is also a thing called MEK that can be targeted by another medicaiton called MEKINIST. Tafinlar and Mekinist can be prescribed as combination therapy in the US and have proven to win people are median 10.5 months. This means that some people can benefit several years from the combo, others only a few months. This means that the advantage is that they have relatively few and manageable side effects (compared to e.g. IPI) but seem to not have the potential for a long term soltuion for many patients.About 90% of patients repsond to it and a major part of them show very fast tumor shrinkage.

              In your case this means that these meds could be an option right now or at any time in the course of your therapy. Some people even take it in parallel to Ipi but this combination has shown to potentially cause severe liver toxicity.

          Viewing 2 reply threads
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