Targeting lung cancer
A small clinical trial of a potential targeted treatment drug has provided powerful evidence that it can halt or reverse the growth of lung tumors characterized by a specific genetic abnormality. In their study published in the Oct. 28 New England Journal of Medicine, a multi-institutional research team reports that daily doses of the investigational drug crizotinib shrank the tumors of more than half of a group of patients whose tumors were driven by alterations in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene. In another one-third of study participants, crizotinib treatment suppressed tumor growth. Preliminary results of the study were presented at the June meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “Traditionally, Phase 1 trials have been used to determine the safety of drugs that have never been given to people before,” said Harvard Medical School instructor Eunice Kwak of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, corresponding author of the study....