A recently invented drug powerfully shrinks tumors in lung cancer patients carrying a specific genetic marker, a discovery that physicians said will rapidly lead to the first effective treatment in a generation for the most lethal and widespread cancer.
The once-a-day pill, Iressa, was approved last May, but only as last-ditch therapy for patients with advanced lung cancer, because it worked only sporadically in clinical trials. A small percentage of patients experienced remarkable recoveries, with the drug extending their lives by a year or longer, and two Boston teams published studies yesterday pinpointing the patients who will benefit.
The impact will probably be immediate and dramatic: Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have already applied for a patent on a test that can pick out the patients likely to respond. Within months, lung cancer patients worldwide could get the drug from the moment of diagnosis, rather than having to first take the mostly ineffective and unpleasant chemotherapy now prescribed.
And those unlikely to benefit from it would be spared the time and cost of taking the expensive new drug, which is made by AstraZeneca.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/04/30/drug_shows_promise_in_lung_cancer_treatment/
The once-a-day pill, Iressa, was approved last May, but only as last-ditch therapy for patients with advanced lung cancer, because it worked only sporadically in clinical trials. A small percentage of patients experienced remarkable recoveries, with the drug extending their lives by a year or longer, and two Boston teams published studies yesterday pinpointing the patients who will benefit.
The impact will probably be immediate and dramatic: Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have already applied for a patent on a test that can pick out the patients likely to respond. Within months, lung cancer patients worldwide could get the drug from the moment of diagnosis, rather than having to first take the mostly ineffective and unpleasant chemotherapy now prescribed.
And those unlikely to benefit from it would be spared the time and cost of taking the expensive new drug, which is made by AstraZeneca.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/04/30/drug_shows_promise_in_lung_cancer_treatment/
