fluoropyrimidine TAS-102
Capecitabine
A drug developed 50 years ago and abandoned because it was considered to be too toxic has gained a second life in an international clinical trial. Research led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute showed the drug and a potentiating agent lengthened the lives of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, all of whom had exhausted available standard treatments.
In a paper published online today by the New England Journal of Medicine, investigators at Dana-Farber and research centers around the world found that the drug combination - given as a single pill known as TAS-102 - not only extended patients' overall survival, but also delayed the advance of the disease and did so with very few side effects.
According to the study authors, the results are especially impressive because half of the patients had just finished treatment with the standard class of chemotherapy agents - fluoropyrimidines (e.g. 5-fluorouracil [5-FU] or capecitabine [Xeloda]) but had failed to benefit from them. The fact that TAS-102 temporarily halted the disease in many of these patients suggests that it operates through a different biochemical pathway than 5-FU, and therefore may serve as an alternative to standard therapy.
"Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths [after lung cancer] in the United States and is an enormous health problem around the world," said the study's lead author, Robert J. Mayer, MD, faculty vice president for academic affairs, medical oncologist and colorectal cancer researcher at Dana-Farber. "To have a well-tolerated, effective new drug in a cancer that is so prevalent is good news for patients."
The trial, a phase 3 study involving major cancer research institutions in Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan, enrolled 800 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that was progressing despite previous treatment. Participants were randomly assigned to receive TAS-102 or a placebo pill...
More : http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1414325
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