New Thyroid Cancer Drug Hits the Market

Cancer treatment has come a long way recently. New drugs are constantly being developed to treat all kinds of cancers and another one has just hit the market.
“It’s an encouraging time for the advancement of treating patients with many different kinds of cancer,” said Dr. Gregory Masters,
The oncologist at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del. continues, “We’re achieving a greater understanding of the pathways by which these cancers grow, and we’re using that understanding to block those pathways.”
Masters is also a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and he says, “It’s been a disease where it’s been very difficult to treat once it’s become resistant to radioactive iodine.”
A new study has found that the drug Lenvatinib could be a groundbreaking for thyroid cancer patients.

Study leader Dr. Steven Sherman explains, “In our study, we not only saw a dramatic improvement in progression-free survival, there was also a 65 percent response rate — almost unprecedented results for thyroid cancer patients with such advanced disease.”
The associate vice provost for clinical research and professor and chair of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders with the MD Anderson Cancer Center at University of Texas in Houston goes on to say: “Almost for sure, significant improvement like this in disease-free survival ultimately will translate into overall survival. Sometimes you don’t see an improvement in overall survival because patients haven’t been followed long enough.”
American Cancer Society deputy chief medical officer Dr. Len Lichtenfeld adds,
“These results are impressive as far as they go, meaning we don’t know yet whether it improves the survival outlook for these patients. We don’t know if it’s going to help people live longer, and given side effects we don’t know if it will help them live better.”