New Cancer Drugs
Some potentially promising news for women concerned about breast cancer. An outside advisory panel Wednesday recommended approval of Tamoxifen, in the prevention of breast cancer in certain women. And, the panel is considering approval of another drug which cures certain cancers. NBC's Sandy Gilmour reports.
The F.D.A. advisory panel recommended Tamoxifen be sold only as a means of reducing the risk of breast cancer among healthy women at very high risk, such as those with family cancer histories.
But it rejected Zeneca Pharmaceutical's request to market it as a full means of cancer prevention, saying a five year study lacked proof.
Women's health advocates expressed concern that women would demand the drug, ignoring Tamoxifen's side effects, which include greatly increased risk of uterine cancer, fatal blood clots, and eye cataracts.
F.D.A. representative, Deborah Cassell, says, "Women are feeling this false safe feeling. I have the drug - almost like a birth control pill and I can just take it and sort of not worry about it."
The advisory panel was expected to approve a second drug today, Herceptin, which kills cancer cells without the harsh, nauseating side effects of chemotherapy.
Marilyn McGregor of the Cancer Support Community says, "This does need to be approved. (Why?) Because it's effective. It works. It extends life for those people who have the most refractory cancers."
Taken intravenously, often with other cancer drugs, Herceptin is genetically designed to attack a protein called HER-2, which occurs in about 30 percent of women with breast cancer.
The drugs are promising, but experts said they will have to be used cautiously. A final decision by the FDA is expected this fall. MESSAGE # 1876
