Chemotherapy can make a patient of an advanced non-small
cell lung cancer, can, according to the statistics, live few time more than one
patient who is not trying chemotherapy. But although chemotherapy seems the only way to alleviate the
grief caused by lung cancer, there is actually another way.
There is a drug
called Erlotinib (Tarceva®) which attacks
the cells that proliferate due to the cancer inside the lungs. It, according to
a clinic study, “targets a protein called the epidermal growth factor receptor
(EGFR).” The EGFR causes cells to divide, and to eventually create tumors; That
is, Erlotinib attacks directly to the
source of creation of tumors, and consequently, attacks the protein that is
found at high levels in patients with lung cancer.
A study conducted to test the drug was carried and the results
were encouraging for long-time smokers. Between August 2001 and January 2003,
scientists took round 700 people with advanced NSCLC (non-small cell lung
cancer), who were randomly given half of them the new drug and the other half
placebos. Ming-Sound Tsao, M.D. of the University of Toronto in Ontario lead
the research, and concluded that patients who took the drug showed a 6.7 months
survival probability, meanwhile patients who did not showed a 4 months survival
chance.
It seems like this is the drug smokers would apply to buy
when their cancer gets worse, but is this something all nice and sweet? Would
smokers buy this drug?
More Information
The drug: Erlotinib
