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news.Pfizer and Novartis manufactured kidney cancer drugs Sutent and Afinitor respectively have been found to be effective against a rare form of pancreatic tumour, according to a new study.
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According to a company-funded report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, both the drugs more than doubled the time that patients lived without their pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors metastasizing, Bloomberg.com reported.
Data from the studies were previously presented at medical meetings and passed through regulators for marketing approval.
Pfizer and Novartis have applied to US and European Union regulators for clearance of Sutent and Afinitor.
Pfizer won European approval in December to market Sutent for pancreatic tumors and gastrointestinal stromal tumors.
Switzerland-based Novartis’ Afinitor also more than doubled survival rate in patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors compared placebo.
Bloomberg.com has quoted Maryland-based National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases doctors Robert Jenson and Gianfranco Delle Fave as saying that the studies raise hopes since both drugs are effective at improving disease-free survival; even in patients in whom other treatments have failed.