New Drug Brings Hope for Liver Cancer Patients (China)
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
An ongoing study conducted by HKU Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine and Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong has used Sorafenib on 50 advanced liver cancer patients. The drug is developed by German pharmacy group Bayer AG. In the first trial of Sorafenib on 16 Hong Kong patients, conditions of 13 and 25 percent have improved and stabilized respectively after their tumor growth was reassessed by CT scan after three months. A new drug that targets molecular pathways of cancer, Sorafenib hinders both tumor cell proliferation and a protein known as vascular endothelial growth factor. "Without using the drug, most of these patients could have died within three months after diagnosed with advanced liver cancer," says Professor Ronnie Poon Tung-ping of the Department of Surgery, HKU Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. "Unlike other cancers such as breast cancer, there is no systemic therapy for liver cancer and it is resistant to conventional chemotherapy," he adds. "Compared to conventional chemotherapy, the drug is safe and has simpler curing process." (Click here for more