The Change Mariner

Drugs May Turn Cancer Into Manageable Disease

The New York Times:

BAY 43-9006 [developed by Onyx Pharmaceuticals], which could reach the market in one to three years, is one of a new generation of "targeted" therapies that are transforming cancer treatment by attacking the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disease.

Some experts see [this patient's] experience as a harbinger of a future in which cancer, while not cured, will be held in check for years by drugs tolerable enough to take on a continuing basis.

"Cancer will become a chronic disease that we will manage much the same way we manage high blood pressure or diabetes," said Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, the director of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Harold Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, warns against setting strict timetables that would create "false expectations." But he agreed that it was now a "reasonable goal to dramatically reduce death from cancer, making it a chronic disease."

Posted by Timothy Fredel at June 6, 2004 05:43 PM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Industry - Healthcare | Industry - Pharmaceutical/Biotech | Quadrant - Technological | Theme - 'The Biotech Century'

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