First Targeted Treatment For Oesophageal Cancer Boosts Survival Rates

First Posted: Nov 05, 2014 05:14 PM EST
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Recent findings presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference discuss how a new targeted treatment for oesophageal cancer is on the way.

"This is exciting news in our field. It's the first time any drug has shown survival benefit for oesophageal patients who have stopped responding to their initial treatment. To date there's been disappointingly little progress in treating this cancer type, which kills nearly 8,000 people a year and sadly is often diagnosed late making it difficult to treat successfully," said Dr Russell Petty, a medical oncologist from the University of Aberdeen, in a news release. "It's thought that up to 16 per cent of oesophageal cancer patients could benefit from gefitinib, providing valuable extra months of life to people who would otherwise have had very few options available to them."

Their research revealed that one in six patients with oesophageal cancer who were found to have EGFR duplication in their tumor cells and taking the new lung cancer drug--gefitnib--had prolonged survival by up to six months.

This is the first treatment for advanced osesphogeal cancer that's been shown to improve survival in patients whose initial course of chemotherapy failed. It is also the first time a targeted treatment of any kind that's proved to have effective results.

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