title: [Issues around melanoma].
abstract: Over the past 30 years little progress has been made in the treatment of patients with a metastatic melanoma. Recently there have been two new developments. One of these is ipilimumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the function of the protein cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4) which inhibits activated T lymphocytes. This gives the immune system a chance to build up an immune response to the melanoma. The other development is vemurafenib, a small molecule that inhibits a mutated protein (BRAF) that occurs in many melanomas. The BRAF mutation leads to uninhibited proliferation.
authors.affiliation: Het Nederlands Kanker Instituut-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Ziekenhuis, Divisie Immunologie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. j.haanen@nki.nl
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haanen
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007211:Indoles / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000074324:Ipilimumab; D008545:Melanoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D013449:Sulfonamides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D000077484:Vemurafenib
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D007211:Indoles; D000074324:Ipilimumab; D013449:Sulfonamides; D000077484:Vemurafenib