Pfizer's lung cancer drug crizotinib shows early promise

Pfizer's cancer drug crizoinib was able to treat non-small cell lung cancer patients whose tumors carried a specific genetic mutation.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Pfizer's cancer drug crizoinib was able to treat non-small cell lung cancer patients whose tumors carried a specific genetic mutation. That mutation, found in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene, is also found in other cancers such as sarcoma, a particular type of pediatric brain cancer, and some lymphomas, breast and colon cancers, notes BusinessWeek. Pfizer hopes that crizoinib's ability to treat lung cancer with the mutated gene will carry over into other cancers.

In the study, 82 patients with the specific genetic mutation were given the drug. Forty-six patients saw their tumor shink by more than 30 percent. Crizotinib stopped tumor growth in 27 of the patients, while one patient's tumor disappeared entirely. "The bottom line is that there was a 72 percent chance the tumor would shrink or remain stable for at least six months," noted study co-author Dr. Geoffrey Shapiro, according to Busines