Europe OKs Oral Chemo for Advanced Colorectal Cancer
Patients being treated for metastatic colorectal cancer in Europe just got a new treatment option.
Capecitabine, which is marketed by Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company Roche under the trade name Xeloda, has been approved by the European Commission for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.
European health officials approved the oral tablets for use in combination with any chemotherapy in all lines of treatment, with or without Avastin®, based on studies showing it produced approximately the same survival rates and level of safety as standard intravenous 5FU chemotherapies currently in use.
Oncologists are optimistic the drug will provide a valuable treatment alternative for thousands of patients in Europe who are diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer every year. As one explained,
“Until now, Xeloda has been available to only a few colorectal cancer patients. But several studies have now shown that almost all patients with colorectal cancer that has spread can benefit from Xeloda at any time and in combination with any chemotherapy treatment. It is a highly effective oral chemotherapy that reduces hospital treatment time by 160 hours compared to the old standard chemotherapy, allowing patients to live as normal a life as possible.”
Professor Jim Cassidy
Cancer Research UK and Chair of Medical Oncology
Beatson Oncology Centre, University of Glasgow
The most commonly reported side effects of Xeloda are diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, stomatitis and hand-foot syndrome.
This latest action adds to growing list of Xeloda-related approvals impacting cancer patients and professionals in more than 100 countries. South Korea has already licensed the drug as a first-line treatment for stomach cancer and for metastatic pancreatic cancer in combination with gemcitabine. In Japan, the treatment is licensed for advanced breast cancer. The US Food and Drug Administration approved capecitabine for adjuvant (post-surgery) treatment of colon cancer in June 2005.
If you’d like to learn more about treatment options available to colorectal cancer patients in the US, you can visit the National Cancer Institute’s Colon and Rectal Cancer page.
Sources: Reuters and Medical News Today
Related Links: CNN.com; European Medicines Agency; SENIORJOURNAL.com; CBS News; Financial Times
Related Podcasts: 2008 Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium Highlights, with Nicholas Petrelli, MD from People Living With Cancer
Technorati Tags: XELOX; palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia; pharmacodynamics; Centre for Oncology and Applied Pharmacology
Print This
|
| Sphere: Related Content
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Browse All Categories: Next article: Supercomputer Helps Supersize Cancer Research at Hormel
Previous article: Many Transplant Patients Oblivious to Skin Cancer Risks
