Targeted Drug Boosts Survival Among Liver Cancer Patients

Sorafenib added three months for those with advanced disease, study finds

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

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WEDNESDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- The drug Nexavar can prolong the lives of people with liver cancer by an average of three months, new research shows.

"The results unequivocally showed that sorafenib (Nexavar) increased the survival of patients with a more than 30 percent reduction in the likelihood to die at any time point during follow-up," said study senior author Dr. Jordi Bruix, a senior consultant in the liver unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona.

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"These results identify sorafenib as the first agent that is effective in improving survival in patients with this devastating disease," said Bruix. His report is in the July 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Up to now, the patients diagnosed with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma had no effective treatment that could improve their survival. Now, we have an option that is based on oral treatment that is effective if liver function is still preserved," added study author Dr. Josep Maria Llovet, director of research in liver cancer at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, and a professor at the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) Group in Barcelona.

More than 21,000 Americans are diagnosed with liver cancer each year, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). About 18,410 people will die because of liver cancer during 2008, reports the ACS. The disease is much more common in men and is more likely to occur in people who've been infected with viral hepatitis B or C.

Treatment options for liver cancer are often limited. If the disease is caught early, it's sometimes possible to remove the tumor or perform a liver transplant. Chemotherapy isn't particularly effective in liver cancers, because one of the liver's main functions is to detoxify drugs.

"When you administer drugs you want to affect the liver, the liver wants to detoxify them and render them ineffective. The liver is also very active in getting rid of drugs and pumping the drugs out of the liver," explained Dr. Lewis Roberts, director of the hepatobiliary neoplasia clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

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