Tom Stutz didn't think he'd make it when his melanoma spread to his lungs, liver and spine three years ago. "I was not eating. I was on oxygen, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't walk."
Traditional drug therapies didn't work, so the 74-year-old joined a trial at UCLA testing the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab. Stutz was one of more than 600 patients with stage four melanoma who received the IV drug every three weeks. The medication targets a protein that keeps the immune system from attacking cancer. Dr. John Glaspy is an oncologist at UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center. "This is a treatment that is targeted not to the tumor itself, the hope is the immune system will target the cancer."
In the study, 72% of patients responded to the treatment. About a third saw their tumors shrink more than 30% and they did not grow back.
The results pushed the FDA to fast track the drug's approval. "It's a huge deal because of what it does in melanoma and because it's potential in some other selected cancers as well."
Stutz has been on the drug for more than two years. "I play tennis about two or three times a week. I gained all my weight back. I don't have a shortness of breath. I don't have a cough"
He isn't cancer free but the tumor in his lung is now half the size.
