New Treatments Show Promise In Renal Cancer, But Unmet Needs Persist, says New Report

PRLog (Press Release) – Jan 25, 2008 – Report Buyer, the online destination for business intelligence for major industry sectors, has added a new report which finds that substantial unmet needs persist in the treatment of renal cancer, despite recent advances in the treatment options.

“Pipeline Insight: Cancer Overview - Increasing diversity offers both high risk and reward" which is available at http://www.reportbuyer.com/go/DAT08935, finds that although some degree of hope for renal cancer patients has emerged in the form of three new drugs which have recently entered the renal cancer market, there is still a substantial opportunity for drug developers.

The report finds that in 2007, an estimated 86,000 people in the seven major markets (US, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) were diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common form of renal cancer. RCC accounts for around 85% of renal cancer cases overall.

The study says the majority of patients who are diagnosed as being in stages
I-III disease, usually undergo surgery, involving removal of the entire affected kidney. For other patients with advanced (stage IV) RCC, surgery is not curative, and survival is typically limited to between one to two years. Recent drug approvals provide much-needed extra therapeutic options, says the study.

Authors state that until relatively recently, treatment options for patients with stage IV RCC were very limited. The only two drugs available to these patients were interferon alfa and interleukin-2, both of which are classified as cytokines, proteins that modulate the immune system. These two agents are both associated with very low response rates and considerable toxicity and thus, the demand for new drugs in this therapy area has been high.

Industry analysts find that since 2005, three novel targeted therapies have been approved for RCC in the US and EU, providing much-needed additional treatment options for patients with advanced stage RCC. In clinical trials, these drugs have shown superior efficacy and tolerability compared to the traditionally used cytokine therapies.

Two of these drugs - Pfizer's Sutent (sunitinib) and Bayer/Onyx's Nexavar (sorafenib) - target receptors specific to the tumor, inhibiting tumor angiogenesis. The third recently approved drug is Wyeth's Torisel (temsirolimus), which inhibits a protein that plays an important role in tumor growth. In addition, a fourth targeted therapy, Genentech/Roche's Avastin (bevacizumab), is being used to treat RCC in the US, and is expected to be approved in the EU in the near future.

To date, Sutent is the drug showing the most promising efficacy in previously untreated RCC patients. In these patients, the drug increases progression-free survival by six months on average compared to interferon alfa, says the publication. This has driven substantial uptake of the drug, making it the most prescribed first-line therapy in most of the seven major pharmaceutical markets, it finds.

The study also found that Nexavar is the most commonly prescribed second-line therapy for RCC. However, there is a lack of evidence showing that this drug is efficacious as a second-line therapy in patients who initially received Sutent, it says.

Authors predict that this segment of the renal cancer market is set to become increasingly contested, given that many second-line patients would have received Sutent as their initial therapy, and considering the lack of data for second-line regimens in these patients.

"Pipeline Insight: Cancer Overview - Increasing diversity offers both high risk and reward" is available from Report Buyer.
For more information go to:

http://www.reportbuyer.com/pharma_healthcare/diseases/ca ...

Report Buyer product ID: DAT08935