Genentech: Advanced skin cancer treatment boosts survival rate

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Patients taking an investigational drug made by Genentech for advanced skin cancer fared better than those receiving standard treatments, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial announced Wednesday.

The company, part of Swiss drug maker Roche, said patients with advanced melanoma containing a mutated version of a protein called BRAF lived longer when receiving the orally administered personalized investigational medicine RG7204 than those receiving the injected chemotherapy drug dacarbazine.

The company said it would present full data from the study at an unspecified medical meeting later this year.