Re: Tarceva: New Drug Against Lung Cancer

From: Steph (steph_at_vancouver.island)
Date: 12/06/04 

Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 07:51:42 GMT

"Hopey5000" <hopey5000@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20041205210625.21734.00001505@mb-m14.aol.com...
>A slight correction. It may be a miracle type drug for a small minority of
> lung cancer victims. Like Iressa, it works extremely well on nonsmokers
> and
> very light former smokers with adenocarcinoma patients whose tumors have
> tyrosine kinase damage. This represents roughly 10%.
>
> In this group, response rates which substantially exceed that of
> chemotherapy
> have been shown in a number of clinical trials during the past year. The
> Harvard Gene laboratory has developed an egfr tyrosine kinase damage test
> to
> identify (for a fee) who is likely to benefit from Iressa (and Tarceva).
> Whether the miracle drug characterization is right can be debated but this
> drug
> can bring substantial relief for a specific subgroup of patients.
>
> For others, its benefit is debatable. It may bring a modest amount of
> disease
> stablization and symptom relief though without providing any extension of
> survival.
>
> Check these articles, some of which are available online
>

I think you need to think carefully about the difference between "benefit"
and "response"