Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Drug resistant lung cancer responds to new drug

HEALTH DAY – Mar. 26, 2014 – An early trial of an experimental lung cancer drug halted or shrank tumors in 58 percent of the 59 people treated. This response rate indicates the drug is highly active in patients with a specific type of advanced non-small cell lung cancer called, ALK-rearranged NSCLC. The result is encouraging for the drug’s maker and trial sponsor, Novartis, but it is not an indication of effectiveness. The objective of the trial is to determine the safety of the oral drug, ceritinib, and the optimal dose needed for further trials. Some of the patients in the study had previously been treated with another ALK-targeted drug called, crizotinib. The early results were published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine. 


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