Oct. 20, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
Much has been accomplished in the fight against a number of cancers, and more and more breakthroughs are being achieved every day. In this, the month in which we recognize that fight - and recognize that much more remains to be done before the scourge of cancer is eradicated - we shine the spotlight on three different companies aiming their resources at winning that war.
And it truly is a war, for cancer in all its forms is the leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease, and will claim more than half a million lives this year. Even so, what we tend to tar with the brush known as ''cancer'' are in fact dozens of different diseases -- all characterized by an abnormal and unregulated growth of cells. This growth destroys surrounding body tissues and may spread to other parts of the body in a process that is known as metastasis. The most notorious and deadly of these cancers affects the breast, and is one of the great killers of women in our society.
Breast cancer happens when cells in the breast tissue divide and grow in an uncontrolled manner, becoming a cancerous (''malignant'') tumor. About 20% of breast cancers start in the glands that produce milk, also called ''lobules.'' About 80% start in the milk passages that connect the lobules and the nipple, called ''ducts.'' Cancerous tumors in the breast usually grow very slowly. By the time one is large enough to be felt as a lump, it may have been growing for as long as 10 years.
Enter OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: OSIP), a company based out of Melville, New York, whose flagship product, Tarceva®, is a small molecule inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, and the only such inhibitor to have demonstrated the ability to improve overall survival in certain advanced cancers. The company also claims an emerging oncology pipeline of molecular-targeted therapies in clinical and late-stage pre-clinical development.
One OSI rival, however, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), has boldly and emphatically claimed progress against metastatic breast cancer through a revolutionary product known as Gemzar, available through injection, which, in combination with the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer after they have received another type of chemotherapy called an anthracycline, unless their medical condition did not allow them to receive the latter treatment.
Patients who received the GEMZAR-paclitaxel combination in clinical studies showed significant improvement in the time it took for the disease to advance or progress. The studies also demonstrated that more patients responded to the GEMZAR plus paclitaxel treatment (resulting in tumor shrinkage) than patients who received paclitaxel alone.
