Camptosar. A relatively new injectable chemotherapy drug may help conquer
the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States--colorectal
cancer. Camptosar, made by Pharmacia & Upjohn of Kalamazoo, Mich., from the
Chinese Camptotheca acuminata tree, was approved two years ago by the Food
and Drug Administration. Recent clinical trials found it shrank and slowed
the growth of tumors in the lower digestive tract. Researchers announced
that Camptosar was effective in patients whose colon cancer had spread
throughout the body and recurred after standard chemotherapy. In the
trials, 36 percent of 279 patients on Camptosar were alive after a year,
while only 14 percent of patients who had received usual care survived.
Oncologists plan to examine the drug's effectiveness in people with
early-stage colon cancer, as well as in cancers of the liver, esophagus,
and stomach.
Taxol. The word cure was also batted around at the meeting in Los Angeles
during discussions of Taxol, a breast cancer fighter derived from the yew
tree. Research showed that when standard chemotherapy and Taxol are
administered after surgery in women whose cancer has traveled to their
lymph nodes, death rates dropped 26 percent and the chances of the cancer's
return were reduced 22 percent, compared with patients who received only
standard chemotherapy. Until now, doctors have used Bristol-Myers Squibb's
drug primarily to treat advanced breast cancers. Experts hope research in
early-stage cancer patients will show Taxol can destroy bad cells before
they fan out to the lymph nodes. Of 183,000 women diagnosed with breast
cancer each year, it is estimated that as many as 75,500 will be eligible
for the new therapy. "Taxol is going to unquestionably save lives," says
Larry Norton, head of medical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center, who is among those researching the drug.
Herceptin. About one third of breast cancer patients carry large amounts of
a protein called HER2. Standard chemotherapy doesn't work with very ill
breast cancer patients with a lot of HER2. But doctors have found that they
can extend life for 25 percent of these women using a drug called
Herceptin, by Genentech of South San Francisco, Calif. This drug is
exciting to oncologists, says Sloan-Kettering's Norton, because when used
in combination with Taxol, it appears to double, even triple, Taxol's
effectiveness without adding major side effects.
SERMs. Further research was introduced confirming the power of Eli Lilly's
raloxifene in reducing the risk of breast cancer. The drug, marketed as
Evista, is what is called a selective estrogen receptor modulator, or SERM.
Designed to fight osteoporosis by activating special estrogen receptors in
bone, raloxifene appears to reduce the risk of breast cancer by more than
50 percent, and by as much as 83 percent in post-menopausal women. Unlike
tamoxifene, another SERM made by Zeneca, it's not linked to increases in
uterine cancer.
PSA test. Many urologists recommend that men over 50 get an annual PSA
(prostate specific antigen) blood test, which measures a protein that rises
when prostate cancer is present. Another blood test is now available for
men whose PSA results fall between 4 and 10, what doctors consider a gray
area. Biopsies are needed to know if cancer exists for sure. The new free
PSA test, which measures PSA that floats free or is not bound to proteins,
helps doctors rule out cancer in about 25 percent of men in that
questionable range. That means about 200,000 fewer men will have to undergo
biopsies each year.
Smoking. Away from the conference, a study discussed in an editorial in
last week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute threatens to undo
years of health education. A study of American and Canadian women with a
particular gene that increases the chance of breast cancer found that
smoking one pack of cigarettes a day for four or more years appears to
reduce the risk of developing breast cancer. This doesn't mean you should
smoke, says Paul Kleihues of the International Agency for Research on
Cancer, in Lyon, France. That's playing Russian roulette with lung cancer
and numerous other diseases. Kleihues and his colleagues believe smoking
reduces estrogen production, thus slowing cancer growth. Experts are quick
to say more studies are required.
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