June 6, 2010 in Nation/World

Melanoma drug promising

Inoperable cancer patients fare better
Marilynn Marchione Associated Press
 
Tags:cancerhealth

Lung cancer drug testing well

 CHICAGO – Doctors are reporting unusually high success rates from early tests of an experimental lung cancer drug.

 The drug, called crizotinib, targets a gene that is found in about 4 percent of lung cancers, which amounts to 10,000 people a year in the United States. In a study of 82 patients with advanced lung cancer, more than 90 percent saw their tumors shrink after two months on the drug.

 Much more testing is needed to see if the drug is safe and effective. Results of the early testing were given at a cancer conference in Chicago on Saturday.

CHICAGO – Researchers have scored the first big win against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. An experimental drug significantly improved survival in a major study of people with very advanced disease.

The results, reported Saturday at a cancer conference, left doctors elated.

“We have not had any therapy that has prolonged survival” until now, said Dr. Lynn Schuchter of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, a skin cancer specialist with no role in the study or ties to the drug’s maker.

The drug, ipilimumab, works by helping the immune system fight tumors. The federal Food and Drug Administration has pledged a quick review, and doctors think the drug could be available by the end of this year.

“People are going to have a lot of hope and want this drug, and it’s not on their doctors’ shelves,” Schuchter said, although some may be able to get it through special programs directly from its maker, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. Last year in the United States, there were about 68,720 new cases and 8,650 deaths from the disease.

“The incidence is rising faster than any other cancer,” said one of the study’s leaders, Dr. Stephen Hodi of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “When it spreads to vital organs, it’s almost always fatal.”

The skin cancer study involved 676 people around the world with advanced, inoperable melanoma who had already tried other treatments – a very grim situation. They were given one of three treatments: ipilimumab by itself, with another immune-stimulating treatment, or the immune-stimulating treatment alone.

After two years, 24 percent of those given the drug alone or in combination were alive, versus 14 percent of those given just the immune-stimulating treatment.

Average survival was 10 months with ipilimumab versus just over six months for the others, said one of the study’s leaders, Dr. Steven O’Day of the Angeles Clinic and Research Institute in Los Angeles.

Doctors hope the drug can provide more benefit if given earlier in the course of the disease and to less sick patients.

Ten percent to 15 percent of patients on ipilimumab had serious side effects related to the drug’s actions on the immune system. Most were treatable with high doses of steroids, but 14 deaths were thought to be related to the treatment. That’s still far fewer than deaths due to the cancer.

The study was funded by Bristol-Myers and Medarex Inc., a company that co-developed the drug and was bought by Bristol-Myers last year. Bristol-Myers has not yet set a price for the drug, but similar treatments for other cancers cost several thousand dollars a month or more.

Results were reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference in Chicago and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Recent stories in Nation/World
No comments on this story so far. Add yours!

    You must be logged in to post comments.
    Please create a profile or log in here.