Promising New Cancer Drugs

Revolutionary drugs bring new hope to cancer patients.

As scientists discover more about cancer, they have been able to develop many new drugs. This guide breaks down the latest in cancer drugs and studies.

Drug: Gleevec
Type of Cancer Approved For: leukemia (CML -- chronic myeloid leukemia); advanced stomach (GIST -- gastrointestinal stromal cancer)
Studies Show: In 84% of CML patients, cancer can no longer be detected by standard methods after treatment; more than half of GIST patients have excellent responses.

Drug: Herceptin
Type of Cancer Approved For: metastatic breast
Studies Show: Women with early-stage disease who took Herceptin in addition to chemotherapy had a 52% decrease in cancer recurrence compared with those on chemo alone.

Drug: Tarceva
Type of Cancer Approved For: metastatic lung (non-small cell); pancreatic*
Studies Show: Modestly improves survival in lung cancer patients; has also shown benefits in patients with pancreatic cancer, and is being investigated for head and neck, and kidney cancers.

Drug: Avastin**
Type of Cancer Approved For: metastatic colorectal
Studies Show: Not only led to the biggest increase in colon cancer survival in 25 years, but has also shown benefit in treatment of breast and lung, and promise in renal, head and neck cancers.

Drug: Aldara
Type of Cancer Approved For: skin (basal cell & actinic keratosis)
Studies Show: 75% of basal-cell patients using this skin cream saw skin lesions disappear -- without surgery.

Drug: Sutent*
Type of Cancer Approved For: stomach (GIST); advanced kidney
Studies Show: Helped 70% of patients who were not helped by Gleevec; results of another study were so positive that trial was halted, and all subjects were given drug; also reduces tumor size in kidney cancer patients resistant to chemo.

Drug: Sorafenib*
Type of Cancer Approved For: advanced kidney
Studies Show: Drug can double the progression-free survival in patients with end-stage kidney cancer; because of overwhelming evidence for benefit and safety, patients can apply for access to this drug before it receives FDA approval.

Drug: Revlimid*
Type of Cancer Approved For: myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS); multiple myeloma
Studies Show: More than 65% of MDS patients with a specific chromosomal abnormality no longer needed blood transfusions; also delays disease progression in late-stage multiple myeloma patients.

Drug: Erbitux
Type of Cancer Approved For: colorectal
Studies Show: Adding Erbitux to chemotherapy shrank tumors in more patients and delayed tumor progression longer than chemotherapy alone. Now being tested for other cancers.

Drug: Velcade
Type of Cancer Approved For: multiple myeloma
Studies Show: Better than current standard therapy at delaying disease progression and extending survival. Results were so encouraging that trial was stopped early so all subjects had option of taking drug.

*FDA approval is expected on these drugs or for these conditions, late 2005/early 2006. **Avastin is expected to receive FDA approval for use against metastatic nonsquamous, non-small cell lung cancer.

From Reader's Digest - October 2005

 

• Lung Cancer
• • Colon Cancer
• • Your Medical Care
• • Fight Disease
• • Skin Cancer
• Breast Cancer

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• Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life
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• Online Cancer Resources
• A guide to up-to-date cancer research and information
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