Several new drugs are showing great promise in treating kidney cancer, a dif-ficult-to-treat form of cancer. The drugs are “targeted” to attack certain molecular mechanisms that spur cancer growth.
The disease is usually resistant to chemotherapy. Only one drug has been approved for kidney cancer, interleukin-2 (IL-2). IL-2 can bring about complete remissions in 3% to 10% of patients, but it is overly toxic and most patients do not receive it.
Sorafenib tosylate (Nexavar, Bayer), a new anti-cancer medication for adults with advanced renal cell carcinoma, has been approved. In the U.S., kidney cancer accounts for approximately 3% of all adult cancers.
In two studies, patients who were treated with sorafenib had more time before tumor progression or death. In the larger study, most patients had received interleukin-2 or interferon. The median time to tumor progression or death was 167 days for sorafenib patients and 84 days for controls.
New labeling for sunitinib malate (Sutent, Pfizer) now includes the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma.
This agent was originally approved in January 2006 for the treatment of advanced kidney cancer under an accelerated approval. With the new labeling, the accelerated approval has now been converted to regular approval. cialis canadian pharmacy
Sunitinib is also indicated for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors after disease progression with, or intolerance to, imatinib mesylate (Gleevec, Novartis).
