New colon cancer treatments.

A new drug, in combination with conventional chemotherapy, allowed patients to live an average of 20 months, 1/3 longer than with chemotherapy alone. Genentech released Avastin, a protein which inhibits blood vessel growth in tumors. After trying Avastin on several different cancers, it appeared to work in colon cancer.

The Mayo clinic also released a study which showed a chemotherapy cocktail of 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin and oxaliplatin also prolonged life by 20 months. Now the National Cancer Institute is testing Avastin with oxaliplatin in cancer patients.

ImClone Systems also released Erbitux which succeeded in shrinking tumors in patients with otherwise untreatable colon cancer. This is a new class of drugs which work with pinpoint accuracy to against molecule-level defects that make the cancer flourish. In a group of 329 patients who failed to respond to a chemotherapy drug, irinotecan, Erbitux was added. It was believed that Erbitux would restore some of the chemotherapy's punch.

Twenty three percent of patients receiving Erbitux with irinotecan had their tumors shrink by at least half. Unfortunately, this effect was brief and the survival rate was only about nine months.

The bottom line is that we are making progress against a very tough cancer. When I was in school the average patient only survived about 6 months and now is survival is up to 20 months. It is possible that various combinations of these and other drugs currently being worked on could one day cure cancer. Hope is still there!