First pharmaceutical drug to improve survival amongst patients with advanced hepatocarcinoma

International research involving the University Hospital of the University of Navarra, together with other hospitals in Spain, has shown that Sorafenib, an orally administered pharmaceutical medicine, results in patients with primary hepatocarcinomas (liver tumours) to live 40% more on average compared to those not taking the drug. The study, led by the Barcelona Hospital Clinic, will be shortly published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This was one of the conclusions of a scientific meeting, organised by the University Hospital of Navarra in Pamplona, which dealt with novelties in the systematic treatment of hepatocarcinoma. Doctor Ruth Vera García, Head of the Oncological Medicine Service at the Hospital of Navarra, Doctor Javier Bustamante Schneider of the Digestive System Service at Cruces Hospital in Bilbao and Doctors Mercedes Iñarrairaegui Bastarrica and Bruno Sangro Gómez-Acebo, both from the Hepatology Unit of the University Hospital of Navarra, presented novelties in the systematic treatment of hepatocarcinoma. The medics coincided in emphasising that the complexity of these patients, often suffering from hepatic cirrhosis also, means that the disorder has to be approached in a multidisciplinary manner and treated at centres which have all possible treatment resources available.

The fifth most common tumour

Hepatocarcinoma is the most frequent hepatic tumour, fifth in overall worldwide cancer rates and the third cause of cancer deaths in the world. In Spain, as in the rest of Mediterranean Europe, some 10 cases per one hundred thousand inhabitants appear every year – a rate of about 500 cases in Spain annually (50 in Navarre). In more than half the cases local curative treatment such as surgery, transplant or percutaneous ablation; or palliative ones, such as arterial embolisation or radioembolisation with radioactive spheres, can be applied. In the rest of the cases, the prognosis is not good but, in the last five years, there have appeared more than ten pharmaceutical medicines known as biological agents or directed pharmaceutical drugs, the use of which in this tumour is currently being actively investigated, giving rise to a real hope for these patients. Of these pharmaceutical medicines, Sorafenib has been the first to demonstrate its efficacy and the European Medicines Agency has recently authorised its use for this tumour, given that it can prolong patient survival at the cost of some side effects which, in 80% of cases, are manageable with a number of preventative or therapeutic measures.

Source: Elhuyar Fundazioa

Related stories:

Post-marketing studies finding adverse events in drugs used in children
The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act (FDAMA, 1997), designed to stimulate more drug safety studies in children, has resulted in more than 130 label changes since its inception nearly six years ago, according to researchers at Duke Children's Hospital. Their analysis appears in the September issue of Pediatrics.
Doctors say Vytorin-cancer link can't be ruled out
(AP) -- Results from three studies of the cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin are not enough to prove or rule out a possible link to a higher risk of cancer, so the drug should be used with great caution until more is known, editors of a leading medical journal urged Tuesday.
New genes found for inflammatory bowel disease in children
Researchers have discovered two new genes that increase the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in childhood.
Gene that causes childhood cancer neuroblastoma is found
Scientists have discovered gene mutations that are the main cause of the inherited version of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. In addition, the researchers found that the same mutations play a significant role in high-risk forms of non-inherited neuroblastoma, the more common form of the disease.
New hope for stroke patients
If a stroke patient doesn't get treatment within approximately the first three hours of symptoms, there's not much doctors can do to limit damage to the brain.
Scientists nail childhood nerve cancer gene
Researchers have identified the hereditary gene mutations behind a deadly form of childhood cancer, opening the way to genetic tests in high-risk families, according to study released Sunday.
Study reveals compression stockings incorrectly used in 29 percent of patients
An original study, published in the September issue of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN), revealed that graduated compression stockings were used incorrectly in 29% of the patients and sized incorrectly in 26% of the patients. These stockings play an important role in preventing the formation of deep vein clots that can result in pulmonary complications and death. AJN is the largest circulating nursing journal in the world, and is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.
How flesh-eating bacteria attack the body's immune system
"Flesh-eating" or "Strep" bacteria are able to survive and spread in the body by degrading a key immune defense molecule, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The finding, which could aid in development of new treatments for serious infections in human patients, will be reported in the August 14 issue of the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news