Mayo Clinic doc says colorectal cancer drug improves survival.... #RochMN

Mayo Clinic oncologist Dr. Axel Grothey says an investigational drug called regorafenib, taken when all other options fail, can slow metastatic colorectal cancer tumor progression and adds, on average, 1.5 months of life.

[Mayo Clinic main campus buildings, Rochester, Minnesota. Photo by Jeff Hansel. Copyright.]

That might not seem like a lot. But for individuals fighting this type of cancer, it means going from a likely five-month survival to 6.5 months.

"The trial, whose largest group of study participants in the United States was at Mayo Clinic, finished more than a year ahead of schedule," says an announcement from the clinic.

Grothey reportedly made the announcement at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco Tuesday (Jan. 17, 2012).

He described via the Mayo announcement "a devastating impasse when standard chemotherapies have failed to halt the growth of tumors and physicians have run out of effective drugs to offer."

"This is the first and only agent in this setting that has demonstrated statistically significant overall survival benefit," he said.

Pulse on Health
By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists
Health Reporter for the PostBulletin.com, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 
Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel