Liver Cancer Drug Could Prolong Lives

Jun 04, 07:39 AM

Current Headlines: By ANDREW POLLACK

By ANDREW POLLACK

The New York Times

CHICAGO - A new drug looks poised to become the first effective treatment for liver cancer, one of the most common and deadliest cancers in the world whose incidence has been rising in the United States, doctors said Sunday.

In a large clinical trial, the drug, called Nexavar, extended the lives of patients by almost three months, or 44 percent. While that is far from a cure, experts say it represents a breakthrough after years of efforts to find a drug that works.

"We did not have anything for these patients," said Dr. Josep M. Llovet , one of the principal investigators in the trial. "Now we have an effective drug that prolongs survival."

Llovet, who has appointments at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the University of Barcelona, said there had been 100 unsuccessful trials of drugs for liver cancer in the past 30 years.

Nexavar, also known as sorafenib, was developed by Onyx Pharmaceuticals, a California biotechnology company, and Bayer, the German pharmaceutical company. The companies said they would apply this summer for regulatory approval to sell Nexavar as a treatment for liver cancer.

The drug is already approved as a treatment for kidney cancer, which means that doctors are allowed to prescribe it "off label" for patients with liver cancer.

In the trial, patients who received Nexavar lived a median of 10.7 months, compared with 7.9 months for those who received a placebo. The main side effects were diarrhea and a painful syndrome in the hands and feet.

The results are scheduled to be presented in Chicago today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The trial involved 602 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer by far. Experts said the results would not apply to other forms of liver cancer or to cancers that originated elsewhere, such as in the lung or breast, and then spread to the liver.

An improvement of survival of 2.8 months is considered significant for cancer drugs, given the difficulty of treating the disease. However, there has been concern among doctors, patients and insurers about the cost of adding a few months to life. Nexavar, like many other new cancer drugs, is expensive, costing $4,500 a month.

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