http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/7876.html
New wonder drug can combat two or more cancersPosted on : Mon, 31 Jul 2006 12:12:00 GMT | Author : Alan Cross
News Category : Health
This day sees the launch of Pfizer's unique drug Stutent which has been formulated to fight against two or more types of cancers. This is the first time that a drug capable of battling multiple cancers has been developed and physicians see it as a ray of hope for several hundred patients who do not respond to conventional treatment.
The drug has already received licenses for treating kidney cancer and cancers of the gastro-intestinal system. Early trials however, hint that it would also work for inhibiting cancers of the lungs, pancreas and breast. The method of functioning of the drug is along the lines of an earlier drug Glivec – it hampers a particular enzyme due to which the multiplication of cancerous cells is stopped. Another process that it follows is starving the tumor of nutrition by denying growth of blood vessels. Both these processes work in synergy, thereby significantly checking progression of cancer.
Martin Gore, Professor of Cancer Medicine at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London said that results of theclinical trials were very encouraging – 42% of patients who took the drug benefited from it. This launch is estimated to be a boon for approximate 6,600 kidney cancer and 900 GIST new cases annually in UK.
Mick Coleman, a former lecturer was one of the patients on whom the drug was tested and he has only good things to say about it. This 49-year-old man was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2001 and remained cancer-free for two years after the organ was removed. However, later there were tumors discovered on his lungs, following which he underwent immunotherapy. Soon his body became resistant to this treatment and Coleman enrolled to try Sutent. He states that the drug gave him several months of good quality life and emphasizes that all cancer patients should benefit from it.
What remains to see how accessible it will finally become since it costs around £2,400 per month. Added, this so far can be recommended only after patients have failed to benefit from other treatments and drugs.
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