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9th Oct

2013

Chemotherapy can be very effective in controlling stomach cancer, even in situations when the cancer has spread to different parts of the body (‘metastases’). However the number of effective drugs has been limited and in some cases can cause significant side-effects such as fatigue, hair loss, diarrhoea and nausea.

In the medical journal ‘The Lancet’ this week, a group headed by investigators from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, USA have published a large study of a new drug called Ramucirumab for patients in whom standard drugs were no longer effective.

The study showed that patients treated with Ramicirumab lived longer than those who received the placebo treatment and had very few side-effects. Ramucirumab interferes with the ability of cancers to establish their own blood supply, and is one of several ‘targeted’ drugs or ‘biologics’ that are being developed to treat this difficult cancer.

Our stomach cancer specialist Dr Nick Maisey said “This is a very exciting development in the management of stomach cancer. Not only has this drug been shown to be effective, it has also been shown to maintain a good quality of life significantly longer than you would see by just treating symptoms alone.” It is expected to gain a license in Europe by the end of 2014.

For more information about stomach cancer click here

More information about Dr Nick Maisey can be found here

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