According to a recent recommendation from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, many patients who have advanced colon cancer should not use some of the most advanced medicine that is used to combat the disease.
Even though it doesn’t sound right for a team of doctors treating cancer to hold back on a popular treatment for lots of patients, it is more important in cancer research to determine what patient’s health will most likely improve on these cancer drugs. These drugs are not only expensive but can be quite harmful.
Patients whose tumors have specific mutations in a gene called KRAS should not get a class of drugs including Erbitux, which is co-marketed in this country by Eli Lily and Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as Amgen’s Vectibix.
Studies have revealed that patients having these mutations, 35% in this immense study, do not benefit from these drugs. A savings of about $600 million a year could be made by not using Erbitux for these patients, the WSJ reports. Amgen proclaimed that the information called for a label change for Vectibix. The WSJ was told by a British spokesman that Bristol and Lilly positively anticipate working with the FDA.
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