Melbourne: A drug
that may melt away cancer cells has been approved in Australia for use in
patients with a type of leukaemia who have not responded to existing therapies.
The drug, Venetoclax, has been approved by Australia's Therapeutic Goods
Administration (TGA) for some stage-four patients of chronic lymphocytic
leukaemia. It works by blocking the action of a protein, known as BCL-2, that
enables cancer cells to survive. It will be available to patients who have not
responded to standard treatments.
Professor David Huang, one of the
developers of the drug, said the BCL-2 molecule was found to be overactive in
many types of cancers. About 70 patients had received the drug since 2011.
“What we found in our studies was that 80 per cent of patients with chronic
lymphocytic leukaemia will actually respond to this drug,” said Maryann
Anderson from Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
“Approximately 20 per cent of those
patients will achieve a complete remission. Most excitingly, we are seeing that
we are getting very good responses among patients with the most high risk
disease,” she said.
Source:DNA-12th January,2017
