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Experimental lung cancer drug shows promise


December 4, 2013

Advanced lung cancer can be challenging to treat, so Dr. Scott Laurie was pleasantly surprised when two patients on one of his clinical trials experienced significant tumour shrinkage. The result was even more surprising given that all the patients had metastatic disease that had failed to respond to first-line chemotherapy, and the drug (called Saracatinib) was thought to be more likely to slow cancer growth than to shrink tumours.

Overall, the study found that six of 31 patients (19%) experienced a partial response or stable disease. The study also provided hints that the responses might be correlated to certain genetic mutations found within patients’ tumours. Further research is planned to investigate this.

See Clinical Lung Cancer for details.

Funder: U.S. National Cancer Institute

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The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) is the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital and is an affiliated institute of the University of Ottawa, closely associated with the university’s Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. OHRI includes more than 1,700 scientists, clinical investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff conducting research to improve the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human disease. www.ohri.ca

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Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
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