Imbruvica reduces cancer’s spread rate by 50 percent.
As part of the endless struggle against cancer, each day, new treatments and therapies are being developed in order improve the patient’s quality of life. Lately, a new breakthrough in cancer drugs gives us the chance to peer the horizon for a cancer-free future. Newly discovered leukemia drug aims to replace chemotherapy, which, in many cases, has proved to be more harming than cancer itself.
According to a new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Imbruvica, Abbvie, and Johnson & Johnson’s wonder-child was proven to be more efficient in treating cancer that traditional chemotherapy. The new wonder-drug, which contains ibrutinib, has shown significant results against several types of cancer and leukemia such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Waldenstron’s macroglobulinemia, and mantel cell lymphoma.
Moreover, it would seem that the drug itself has marvelous results when it is administered to untreated patients or to patients that received a prior course of treatment. Also, the doctors tend to recommend this new drug to the patients that display the 17p deletion sign.
This new study belongs to the RESON-2 cancer trial, and according to the specialists, the trial has already moved on to the third stage. During the trial, approximately 250 patients suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia received this course of treatment. Most of them were over the age of 65.
According to the report, drafted shortly after the trial has started, the patients who received Imbruvica, displayed significant improvement. Moreover, when Imbruvica was compared to the traditional chlorambucil, the specialists observed that drug was actually capable of decreasing the risk of death induced by traditional chemo, with almost 85 percent. In term, this could be translated as Imbruvica accounting for only 3 deaths per trial, while traditional chemo has a death toll of 15 people, per trial.
The scientists also discovered that the drug can actually help the patients by significantly slowing down the disease’s rate of progression. While being under therapy, the clinician observed that the new drug is capable of extending the period before the apparition or worsening symptoms with about 50 percent, in the case of patients who are suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Meaning that the patients treated with Imbruvica showed a worsening in terms of symptoms after 18 months.
The overall results of the study points out that by using Imbruvica instead of traditional chemotherapy, cancer’s rate of spread is reduced by 50 percent in almost 86 percent of the cases. More data is needed in order to see if the drug can live up to expectations.
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