Image source: Wall Street Journal
BY JING LIU
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Promising news for some lung cancer patients…
As Pharma Times reports, FDA approved a new drug with a proven track record of shrinking malignant lung tumors.
“The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Xalkori...capsules, the first-ever therapy targeting anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), for the treatment of patients with late-stage non-small cell lung cancer.”
But the twice-daily pill isn’t for everyone-- as WPTV explains.
“…it works by targeting a person’s genes so that means it works only for a small number of people—about five percent to be exact. But that still amounts to about 10,000 people every year.”
Although only for limited groups, the new pill has its value. According to NBC, when it works, the result is almost instantaneous.
“Many times, these pills can cause very rapid improvement in their symptoms, sometimes even within in a few days of starting on their pills.”
Those big results come with a big price tag.
Treatment will cost patients more than $100,000 each year. And while researchers say the drug does give many patients in the clinical trials several good years, it eventually stops working.
Despite the limitations, as ABC reports, the drug may pave the way for more- specialized cancer treatments in the future.
“...is this procedure almost personalized medicine wave to future? It really is. I’ve been talking to colleges all day. More and more, they are gonna be testing people to start therapies to understand what make their tumor take and prescribe drug specifically for your type of tumor. So it gives a lot of hope for us in the world of cancer.”
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