Lung cancer treatment shows promise
October 27th, 2010
A new drug is showing remarkable promise in treating lung cancer patients who have a rare genetic mutation. The drug, crizotinib, stabilized or improved the disease in 90 percent of patients in an early stage clinical trial, according to study results released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
“Some of our patients will notice improvement of their symptoms within a few days or a week,” said Dr. Alice Shaw, one of the drug’s lead investigators. “These responses are dramatic.”