How effective is sorafenib 200 MG (organic name NEXAVAR) IN Malignant melanoma?

my father is 52 years old & has been diaognised with maligant melanoma ! doctors says that as liver is effected by the disease surgery will be of no use ! so they suggest for palliative treatment & started giving interferon to him & also ask us to arrange for new medicine SORAFENIB/NEXAVAR as it is not available in INDIA & very costly too ?can some body tell us abt its effect specifically in melanoma ? & secondly any other possible, better treatment/medicine for this disease? pls reply early

Sorafenib is a targeted drug therapy. It is a small molecular inhibitor of Raf kinase, PDGF (platelet-derived growth factor) and VEGF receptor kinase. Other current PDGR, VEGF and, EGFR inhibitor drugs such as Iressa, Tarceva and Avastin have provided some benefit to a select group of patients. These are pretty much anti-angiogenesis drugs.

Most of these drugs have been approved for specific cancers Avastin for colon cancer, Iressa for long cancer, Nexavar for kidney cancer. However, these drugs are also used in clinical trials and off-label. Nexavar for melanoma would be off label. Again, the benefits shown so far have been limited for the approved cancers. So, there is little to no data collected for non-approved cancers.

When these targeted therapies were designed, they had a rationale of their method of action and a disease location in mind. So, trying these drugs for other cancers is close to a total shot in the dark.

I wish I had a better answer but, advanced melanoma is a very difficult to treat disease.

From what I've read, there are very encouraging results in the treatment of melanoma from some clinical trials involving engineered vaccines. I know alot of the work is being done at NCI and JHU. I'm not sure if that can help you.

I'm sure you would receive a Moore actuate answer from a doctor. what do you think?