This week's American Clinical Oncology conference is creating a flood of news, much of it involving targeted therapies. On Saturday, there was surprising word that a therapy doctors had hoped would relieve symptoms of a blood disorder known as myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) actually was working to fight the blood cancer. The study involving the experimental drug Revlimid, which is made by CeleGene, is being hailed as a major breakthrough. Pfizer had equally promising news to report, announcing studies involving two experimental drugs which go after tumors directly. Clinical trials are expected soon for both Sutent and AG13736. Genentech's Avastin, which attacks breast and lung cancer by cutting off the flow of blood to tumors using a similar method, was also the subject of a successful study.
For more on Revlimid:
- see this story from The Washington Post
For more on Pfizer's targeted therapies:
- see this story from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)