A new type of cancer drug that harnesses the body’s immune system to fight tumors has won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Keytruda (pembrolizumab), which blocks a protein called PD-1 that tumors use to evade immune cells, is approved for patients with advanced melanoma who fail other treatments. Cancer researchers “have been almost giddy” about this type of potential drug, according to The New York Times, which reports that Keytruda will cost about $150,000 a year. It is one of a wave of new cancer immunotherapies that Science named as 2013’s Breakthrough of the Year.
For more info: http://news.sciencemag.org/sifter/2014/09/new-cancer-immunotherapy-drug-approved
