New drugs have made significant progress in cancer treatments such as lung cancer!

June 2, 2020 /
PRNewswire
BIOON / - Doctors report that new drugs have succeeded in better controlling certain types of cancer, reducing the risk of cancer recurrence and making treatment simpler and more affordablefor patients like Jenn Carroll, a milder drug would be a reliefJenn Carroll, 57, from New Hartford, Connecticut, is a human resources executive"it works very wellI call it the 'blammo' method," she saidCarroll readily accepted the opportunity to help test tagrisso,AstraZeneca, a new drug he takes every dayInstead of using the inaccurate cell killing methods of chemotherapy, Tagrisso targeted a specific genetic mutationDoctors say its side effects can be controlled and can be used for years to help prevent recurrenceimage source: NCI Center for Cancer Research via AP
A big drawback: It and other new drugs are very expensive -- $150,000 or more a yearHow much a patient ultimately has to pay depends on insurance, income, and other factorsThe American Society for clinical oncology
held an online conference this weekend because of the coronavirus pandemic lung cancer more than 1.7 million people die each year Dr Royherbst of the Yale Cancer Center studied 682 of the most common cancer patients All have surgically removed tumors , and their EGFR gene has mutated, which is found in 10 to 35 percent of cases, especially among Asians and nonsmokers about half of patients received standard chemotherapy after surgery and then took Tagrisso or a placebo Last month, independent monitors stopped the study when the benefits of the drug seemed obvious after an average of two years, 89 percent of patients taking the drug survived, compared with 53 percent of those taking a placebo Serious side effects are more common in the Tagrisso group, mainly diarrhea, fatigue and inflammation of the skin around the nails or in the mouth Tagrisso was approved for the treatment of advanced lung cancer The drug costs about $15,000 a month prostate cancer
men with advanced prostate cancer usually receive medication to suppress male hormones that help the cancer grow These drugs are injected every few months, but take days or weeks to start working and can lead to initial bone pain and urinary or other problems researchers tested Myovant Sciences' relugolix, a different type of hormone blocker, and leuprolide, the first drug to take daily The former was taken daily, while the latter was injected every three months and treated 930 men for nearly a year about 97 percent of patients who used the experimental drug inhibited hormone production during this time, compared with 89 percent of the patients who used the experimental drug Four days after starting treatment, 56 percent of the men who took relugolix had hormone suppression, compared with none of the patients who used leuprolide 3% of men who took relugolix and 6% of men who took leuprolide had a heart attack, stroke
or other serious heart problems The difference is even greater in men who previously had heart problems Dr Celestia Higano, of the University of Washington in Seattle, , said this could be important because heart disease is a common cause of death in prostate cancer patients She was not involved in the study and has published an opinion piece in New England Journal of Medicine Picture: AstraZeneca via AP
Myovant is seeking approval from the U.S Food and Drug Administration (
FDA ) and has not yet released a cost estimate Colon Cancer Merck and Co Keytruda, a heavy device that helps the immune system detect and fight cancer, has been shown to be better suited to the initial treatment of advanced colon cancer and tumor
s with genetic defects than standard chemotherapy combination therapy, which can cause a large number of mutations that make them difficult to treat the study involved 307 patients in France Patients treated with Keytruda lasted an average of more than 16 months before the cancer worsened, while those who received chemotherapy lasted an average of eight months A year later, 55 percent of patients in the Keytruda group survived, compared with 37 percent in the chemotherapy group Two years later, the proportion was 48 per cent and nearly 19 per cent, respectively about 22 percent of people treated with Keytruda had serious side effects, while 66 percent of those who received chemotherapy had serious side effects Dr Howard Burris, director of the Sarah Cannon Institute (SCRI) and president of the Society of Oncology and , said about 5 percent of colon cancers in the study were similar to this "If you're one of 20 patients, you can have a simple immunotherapy every two weeks instead of combined chemotherapy, which works better and has fewer side effects," he said (biovalleybioon.com) References: New Drugs make headway against lung, prostate, colon cancers