A new drug could extend life for some cancer patients

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - For Valley resident David Ledbetter a simple medical procedure turned into something much more.

“I was actually having a procedure on my right shoulder and that doctor said you might want to get this looked at,” Ledbetter said.

The coal black pencil eraser-sized mole on his shoulder turned out to be a malignant melanoma, skin cancer.

David says for him reality hit even before the biopsy came back.

“You’re as they say confronted with your own mortality,” he said.

Dr. Lee Laris of Phoenix Skin says a new cancer drug is now bringing hope to those with the most deadly forms of melanoma.

“So normally once cancer has gotten into lymph nodes and other organ systems our death rate is very high and most people die within a year,” Laris said.

But the drug, Ipilmumab can give patients more of that precious time.

“This drug has actually prolonged that from 6 months to 10 months or more and that’s on average," Laris said. "Some people it’s prolonged life for a year or two."

The drug is expected to be approved by the FDA by the end of this year, but it’s also being tested for other uses.

“Not only does it make a difference for the end-stage patients, it can make a difference for earlier patients, it can make a difference for other cancers too. It’s shown some promise with ling cancer and other cancers as well,” Laris said.

While David isn’t at a point where he would need this drug, he’s very glad it’s there, just in case.

“I would certainly look forward to being the beneficiary of some technological breakthrough,” he said.