Avastin

gdpawel · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:23 am Post subject: Avastin

One of the problems in providing effective chemotherapy is the fact that every patient is unique. Tumors grow and spread in different ways and their response to treatment depends on these unique characteristics. Therapeutic protocols currently in use are limited in their effectiveness, because they are based on the results of clinical trials conducted on a general patient population, yet no two patients are alike.

Avastin patients had a median survival rate of 12.5 months compared with 10.2 months for chemotherapy-only patients. Median survival rates for Avastin are statistically insignificant. The January 10, 2002 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine stated that 20 years of clinical trials using chemotherapy on advanced lung cancer have yielded survival improvement of only two months.

Clearly, more effective therapies are desparately needed, and after 20 years of investigation aimed at intensified multi-agent chemotherapy, we should look for other avenues of study. In an era of ever-increasing numbers of partially effective cancer therapeutics, there is an obvious need for technologies to better match treatment to each patient. It requires individualized treatment based on testing the individual properties of each patient's cancer.

Cancer investigators rely on models that are consistently lousy at predicting success, to the point where hundreds of cancer drugs are thrust into the pipeline. Many of them are approved even though their proven activity has little to do with curing cancer.

The cancer "investigator-type" culture prizes itself on the exhaustive examination of trivial hypotheses, while eschewing support of cancer "discoverer-type" researcher, attempting to create entirely new paradigms of cancer treatment. A dysfunctional cancer culture that pushes tens of thousands of physicians and scientists toward the goal of finding the tiniest improvements in treatment rather than genuine breakthroughs that reward academic achievement and publication over all else.

There are over 100 different therapeutic drug regimens out there, and over 400 in the pipeline. Any one or combination of them can help cancer patients. The system is overloaded with drugs and underloaded with wisdom and expertise for using them. What is needed is to make extensive use of assay-directed therapy in treatment decisions.

	Cancer Forums Forum Index -> Cancer News	All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

A website for discussions about any type of cancer, including lung cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and others