Clinical Studies in the Pipeline
11/16/2005 Philadellphia, PA staff NewsWise (www.newswise.com) During the past decade, several new drugs have been approved that target specific genes and molecules, increasing survival for many cancer patients. Not only are these drugs often more effective than the current standards of care, they also carry an added benefit of fewer side effects. Many believe that a new generation of targeted therapies will be the first choice for cancer care in the future, with the goal of tailoring treatment to individual tumors and patients. Clinical studies with several molecularly targeted drugs are being featured at the Annual International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics coordinated by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). These include: 1. A Phase III trial, which has found that cetuximab (Erbitux) and radiotherapy improves disease control and survival rates for a specific category of advanced head and neck cancers. 2. A Phase II study, offering encouraging results that temsirolimus, a derivative of the immunosuppressant drug rapamycin, may be effective against recurrent and metastatic endometrial cancer. Cetuximab Improves Locoregional Control and Survival of Locoregionally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer: Independent Review of Mature Data with a Median Follow-up of 45 Months (Abstract 2628) Head and neck cancers account for three percent of diagnosed cancers in the United States, and almost 13,000 people will die each year from the disease. A majority of these cancers begin in cells lining the head [...]