Eloxatin to Treat Colon Cancer

Researchers hope early intervention will improve its 'success rate'

TUESDAY, Aug. 13, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- In the fastest review ever, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a drug to fight colon cancer, the nation's second-leading cause of cancer death.

Eloxatin is a last-ditch treatment, to be used when all other treatment options have failed. And its success rate hasn't been stellar. Only 9 percent of patients who received the drug had their tumors shrink measurably. Even then, the treatment was good only for about two months, when the tumors resumed their growth.

That's the not-so-good news.

The hopeful news is that the clinical trials were performed on patients who were hard-to-treat and had exhausted other chemotherapy. The FDA anticipates that results from ongoing trials may show that Eloxatin will work better when administered when colon cancer is at an earlier stage.

Dr. Richard Pazdur, who heads up the FDA's cancer research, stressed that the agency is willing to work around the clock to find whether a drug is suitable when lives are at stake.

"We want to send a message,'' Pazdur told the Associated Press, emphasizing that FDA employees worked overtime and canceled vacations to speedily review Eloxatin because the science behind the drug was so strong. "We're willing to do that if we think the drug is worth that.''

This FDA news release gives all the particulars on the speedy approval process.

If you want to know more about the symptoms (or lack thereof) of colon cancer, read this article from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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