Bone cancer drug trials show increase in survival rates

Scientists say a new drug could help increase survival rates of more people with bone cancer, particularly children.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia said CADD522 works against all the main types of primary bone cancer.

Cancer that starts in the bones, rather than that has spread to the bones, predominantly affects children.

The new drug will undergo formal toxicology assessment before approval is sought for human clinical trials from the government’s regulatory agency.

The team behind the research said the drug said CADD522 “could be the most important drug discover in the field for more than 45 years”.

Studies of mice that had been implanted with human bone cancer showed the drug blocked a gene associated with driving the cancer’s spread.

Researchers said the five-year survival rate in humans was currently 42 per cent, largely due to how rapidly bone cancer spreads to the lungs.  They said their data showed that the new drug increased metastasis-free survival rates in mice by 50 per cent without the need for surgery or chemotherapy, meaning mice that had the drug lived for 50 per cent longer than those left untreated.

Lead researcher Dr Darrell Green, said primary bone cancer was “the third most common solid childhood cancer, after brain and kidney, with around 52,000 new cases every year worldwide.

“It can rapidly spread to other parts of the body, and this is the most problematic aspect of this type of cancer.

“Ultimately we want to save lives and reduce the amount of disability caused by surgery.  And now we have developed a new drug that potentially promises to do just that.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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