By Daniel J. DeNoon (WebMD) -- Two multiple sclerosis patients developed malignant melanoma -- a deadly form of skin cancer -- soon after starting treatment with Tysabri. Tysabri slows the self-destructive immune responses that attack the nervous systems of people with MS. In animal studies, these same immune responses hold melanoma in check. Might the drug have caused melanoma in these two MS patients? It’s possible, says Timothy K. Vartanian, MD, PhD, chief of the multiple sclerosis division at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. Vartanian and colleagues report the two cases in a letter to the Feb. 7 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
