New 'smart' drug for cancer sufferers
New 'smart' drug for cancer sufferers
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Monday, 31, Jul 2006 10:17
A drug which attacks cancer on two fronts has become available in the UK today.
The European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Sutent to treat metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), a type of advanced kidney cancer.
Sutent belongs to a new class of drugs which target cancer by inhibiting both tumour growth and blood supply, and has been available in the US since January this year.
It has also been given approval to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST).
Advanced kidney cancer and GIST affect less than 0.5 per cent of the European population.
Research has found that this 'smart' cancer drug has proved effective in increasing GIST survival rates and decreasing tumour progression.
Dr Paul Nathan, consultant medical oncologist at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Northwood, Middlesex, said: "We have a couple of hundred new kidney cancer patients each year. I'd expect to treat about 50 patients each year with Sutent.
"This drug and others like it, we think, are a very major advance in the treatment of this disease."
In clinical trials, the median time for time to tumour progression was increased to 28.9 weeks for patients receiving Sutent in comparison to 5.1 weeks for those receiving a placebo.
Dr Sylvie Negrier, professor of Medical Oncology at Centre Leon Berard, Lyon, said that the 35 per cent of people who responded to the drug in trials was "truly remarkable".
She said: "A large majority of patients were able to control their disease over time. These are signs of Sutent's significant effects in patients fighting kidney cancer."
Hazel Nunn, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This drug appears to have potential for treating advanced kidney cancer and improving life expectancy in a form of digestive tract cancer where other treatments have failed.
"Both types of cancer are rare, so the number of patients that will benefit at this stage will be relatively small. But this new treatment may help patients who previously had few options.
"Although Sutent has been licenced it will be up to NICE to appraise whether it should be made available on the NHS."