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January
Kidney Cancer Drug Breeds New Hope for TreatmentFDA fast tracks drug for approval, manufacturing and delivery under wayLehigh Valley, Pa. (January 2006) – A new cancer fighting drug, Nexavar (Sorafenib) was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with advanced kidney cancer.During clinical trials, the new drug showed dramatic results in slowing the progression of the tumor, and increased survival rates in at least half of the participants studied. Nexavar improved the outcomes by an average of six months. If detected early enough, the tumor can be removed with surgery, sometimes by minimally invasive techniques. Otherwise the only other treatment is immuno-therapy which has had only a ten to 20 percent success rate. “Kidney cancer usually affects men twice as often as women, and people who are 50-70 years old, making treatment with immuno-therapy more difficult” said Suresh Nair, M.D., fellowship director for Hematology Oncology Associates of Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH). “Patients need to have a strong cardio-vascular system to survive it.” However, Nair warns that Nexavar isn’t a cure for advanced kidney cancer, “It extends life in about half of the people who take it and it improves their quality of life too, but it doesn’t make the cancer go away completely.” The new drug works by stopping the flow of blood to the tumor, essentially starving it and will also cut off the tumor’s growth hormone to keep it from spreading. “In the past, kidney cancer had such a dismal outlook,” says Nair. “This new drug, along with other drugs still in development, will give kidney cancer treatment a kind of synergy that didn’t exist before. It’s something for patients to look forward to -- hope on the horizon.” Nair also stated that Nexavar will likely become the “front-line” drug for patients with advanced kidney cancer and new clinical trials will combine Nexavar with immuno-therapy to potentially spur on better survival results. In the U.S. there are 32,000 new cases of kidney cancer diagnosed annually with a two to four percent increase each year. About 12,000 die annually from the disease. This page last updated 2/12/08 04:08 PM
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