Pfizer's wonder drug to fight cancer

Other stories in the section:

Designer Baby: Women want smart, intellectual sperms

The search for the perfect sperm stops at nothing but the best.

• Oldies having 'lot' more sex says survey

• Caesarean delivery, not all that safe

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Bhiwani to Beijing: Lessons from a journey

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Ranbaxy loses out to Pfizer again
• US court favours Ranbaxy over Pfizer
• Pfizer, Ranbaxy settle dispute over Lipitor

Keywords: Cancer, Pfizer

New Delhi: As people across the world observe World Cancer Day on Saturday, there's some good news for cancer patients. Two deadly forms of cancer can now be treated with one drug.

Pfizer's drug Sutent was recently given the green signal by the US Food and Drug Administration.

This once-a-day pill was approved to treat advanced kidney cancer and a rare stomach cancer known as gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST).

Sutent, in fact, can be prescribed to GIST patients who are unable to tolerate treatment with Novartis AG's Gleevec.

Like Gleevec, Sutent is a targeted therapy that attacks only sick cells. But unlike Gleevec, Sutent kills more than one target to deprive tumour cells of the blood and nutrients they need to grow.

Experts say India will see this drug only at the end of the year.

An Oncologist at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Dr Harsh Dua says, "Some of these drugs cause the body to swell up a little bit and there is swelling of the body. So, there are side effects but these are side effects, which are generally not life-threatening."

"You know these are more like cosmetic and a little bit of inconvenience to the patient but they are not life-threatening, unlike some of the chemotherapy drugs where we sometimes get very serious life-threatening side effects," he adds.

Worldwide, 7.6 million people died of cancer in 2005 and 84 million people will die in the next 10 years if action is not taken, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.

Tobacco use is the single most important risk factor for cancer and causes a large variety of cancer types such as cancer of the lung, larynx, oesophagus, stomach, bladder, oral cavity.

Next Page: Types and Causes of Cancer