Friday, April 13, 2007

Gleevec decreases cancer recurrence for patients with primary gastrointestinal stromal tumor

Preliminary results from a large, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial for patients with primary gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a type of tumor usually found in the stomach or small intestine, showed that patients who received imatinib mesylate (Gleevec ®) after complete removal of their tumor were significantly less likely to have a recurrence of their cancer compared to those who did not receive imatinib. The clinical trial was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and conducted by a network of researchers led by the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG).
The data monitoring committee overseeing the trial (known as ACOSOG Z9001*) recommended that the results from a recent interim analysis be made public because the study had met is primary endpoint of increasing recurrence-free survival.
"The standard treatment for primary GIST is complete surgical removal of the tumor without additional therapy," said Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., NIH Director. "It is excellent news that addition of this well-tolerated cancer pill to the treatment regimen can have such a positive impact on decreasing the risk of recurrence."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/nci-gdc041207.php

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