GLG News by Hematologists who Treat CLL (US)

For the first time in decades, several drugs like Temodar and Avastin and tumor vaccines ( Avant and others) have shown increased overall survival even in adavnaced and recurrent brain tumors as glioblastoma multiforme. Several agents are in the pipeline, and more Big Pharma involvement is expected...

The epidermal growth factor antagonist Erbitux did not improve response rates in newly diagnosed patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer ( NSCLC).  Many patients had hypersensitivity reactions to Cetuximab, which has to be content with its role in colon cancer treatment and to some extent...

In a clinical trial from MD Anderson, Celgene's oral immunomodulatory agent , Revlimid showed a modest, yet impressive, overall response rate of 32% in patients with refractory, heavily pre-treated CLL. With already proven efficacy in other hematological malignancies, like multiple myeloma, myelofibrosis,...

Revlimid has activity in Chronic Lymphatic Leukemia (CLL) in addition to myeloma and myelodysplasia.

Higher recurrance rate???!!!

     While no slam dunk cures are noted, drugs such as Avastin (Genentech), Temodar (Schering-Plough) &  Avant/Pfizer  vaccines  are making an impact on  "Brain Cancer"  survival.

Proteolix's selective proteosome inhibitor PR-171 have shown pre-clinical activity in slid tumor animal models, but only a small Phase Ib clinical trial of 14 patients have been completed. based on spectrum of activity of a similar compound ( Valcade, Mellinium), the main efficacy of this agent...

" Conclusions: Cetuximab does not appear to add to treatment efficacy when combined with gemcitabine and docetaxel in advanced NSCLC. A high rate of severe cetuximab HSRs necessitated trial closure at our Nashville site." Not very promising.

Low cost generics to be produced in China will lower drug costs.

As world economies improve more money will be spent globally on cancer care expanding potential markets