Petra Rietschel, MD: Cancer Treatment Combinations May Stave Off Progression of the Disease

October 24, 2012

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that GlaxoSmithKline Plc has combined two medications designed to treat melanoma in an effort to slow the growth of the cancer. According to the article, a study has found that this combination has succeeded in limiting the progression of the disease more successfully than a single-drug therapy. Petra Rietschel, MD, who specializes in the treatment of melanoma, sarcoma, and breast cancer, encourages such experimental efforts. She asserts that combining pharmaceuticals may allow patients and their doctors to fight cancer more effectively.

The article explains: "Patients taking Glaxo's dabrafenib and trametinib together delayed tumors from progressing for 9.4 months, compared with 5.8 months for patients taking dabrafenib alone, according to the study of 162 patients...This is the gene that initiates cancer in roughly 50 percent of individuals who have melanoma...Zelboraf—the development of non-melanoma skin cancer—while possibly boosting efficacy,” according to Jeffrey Weber, a study leader and oncologist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.

Dr. Rietschel believes that the right combination of drugs may improve the treatment options available to cancer patients. Petra Rietschel, MD holds her MD and PhD from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Currently, Petra Rietschel, MD is involved in several programs spanning multiple medical centers, including Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center. Petra Rietschel, MD specializes in melanoma, breast cancer, and sarcoma.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/10/prweb10035947.htm