login
Become a member
Quick Registration
Full Registration Benefits -
Free Homepages for Doctors
Free Homepages for Hospitals
Free Homepages for Medical Conference
Free Homepages for NGO's
Personal Health Record Creation
Access to all Medical Slides
Access to all Jobs & Products Sale
New Drug Therapies Improve Survival Rates In Colorectal Cancer Patients
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world. Now the discovery of genetic biomarkers relevant to CRC means that targeted personalized medication is increasingly common. CRC affects approximately 150,000 patients and leads to over 52,000 deaths every year in the US alone. In the early stages, CRC can often be cured by surgery. It is in the more advanced, palliative cases that the abundance of drug therapies comes into play, according to Mayo Clinic oncologist Axel Grothey, MD. In his paper Medical treatment of advanced colorectal cancer in 2009 published this week in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology, Grothey details the interplay of therapies currently on offer.
Oncologists now integrate conventional cytotoxic agents oxaliplatin and irinotecan (which directly fight tumor cells) with treatments such as bevacizumab and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibodies, cetuximab and panitumumab, as novel targeted agents into standard medical therapy. The result is that median overall survival in metastatic CRC now exceeds two years for the first time.
For decades, standard first-line therapy consisted of the drugs fluorouracil (5-FU) plus leucovorin, which helped just a fifth of patients to survive a median of one year. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the addition of oxaliplatin and irinotecan to the backbone of 5-FU and leucovorin led to dramatic improvement in median survival to nearly 24 months. Most recently, biologic agents such as bevacizumab, cetuximab, and panitumumab, have yielded even better results for many patients.
|
|
|
More News on: Drug Toxicity, Cancer and Homeopathy, Clinical Trials - Different Phases of the trial , Colo-rectal cancer - Management, Colorectal Cancer, Signature Drug Toxicity, Cancer Facts, Cancer, Tattoos A Body Art, Colon Polyps
 Comment & Contribute
|
Medwonders Health Network
- Health News Index
 | Quiz on Cancer Looking for information on cancer? Go through medindia's Cancer quiz. 
|
- News Quick Links
 |
Cancer
Complete Medindia Resources
|
| News Categories: |
| » | Report: A Lot of Americans Have No Access to Health Care |
| » | Greece Faces Humanitarian Crisis as Health Care Access Declines in EU, Doctors Group Warns |
| » | HCCI Report Says Rising Prices for Care Responsible for Increased Healthcare Costs for Privately Insured Americans |
| » | Treatment in ED is Based on Children's Insurance Status |
| » | US Spends Most on Healthcare Without Providing Superior Care |
| More Insurance News | |
|
