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Anti-Cancer
Drug WARNING
TOP
Study
Raises Safety Issues with Cancer Drug
A
study being published March 15, 2001, in the New
England Journal of Medicine says Genentech’s
breast cancer drug, Herceptin, improved the life
expectancy of patients with late-stage tumors but
raised safety concerns that could affect whether
the drug is used earlier, when cancers are first
diagnosed.
This
safety issue, being debated by cancer specialists,
has financial implications for Genentech, which
grossed $275.9 million last year on Herceptin,
its second-best-selling drug. It has been on the
market since 1998, when the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration approved it to treat breast cancers
that have recurred in patients who have undergone
surgery, radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy.
The
data reported in the New England Journal of Medicine
come from the same clinical trials that led to
FDA approval in 1998. Thursday’s publication,
however, marks the first time a scientific journal
has taken a detailed look at those clinical trials.
Herceptin
was designed to be effective against tumors with
an excess of the HER2 gene. Thus, when patients
have a breast cancer relapse, only those who test
positive for HER2 are treated with Herceptin.
But the controversial details in the paper revolve
around the side effects Herceptin showed when
given with the common chemotherapy agent doxyrubicin.
Lead
author Dr. Dennis J. Slamon, a cancer researcher
at the University of California at Los Angeles,
explained that administering Herceptin and doxyrubicin
together seemed to affect the hearts of test patients,
causing fatigue, shortness of breath and other
symptoms.
“We
don’t know yet if it’s effective; we
don’t know yet if it’s safe,” he
said, adding that early administration of Herceptin
might breed tumors resistant to the drug, rendering
it useless when current treatments fail and Herceptin
is needed for late-stage cancers.
It
could be 2004 before studies settle the debate
over the safety and effectiveness of Herceptin
as a front-line treatment for HER2 breast cancers,
Slamon said.
There
are however, many safe natural products that have
been used for centuries without harmful side effects
that should explored more thoroughly. At the Arizona
Institute of Natural Medicine, Dr. Clark Hansen
recommends a combination of Grape Seed Extract,
Green Tea, Quercitin and Vitamin C. All of these
natural products show remarkable anti-cancer properties.
For
more information on these natural ingredients,
click here: Flavinox TOP |
