Dr. Len's Cancer Blog
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J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, MD, MACP - Dr. Lichtenfeld is Deputy
Chief Medical Officer for the national office of the American Cancer Society.
He directs the Society’s Cancer Control Science Department, which produces the
Society’s widely recognized guidelines for the prevention and early detection
of cancer and guidelines for nutrition and physical activity for cancer
survivors. Additionally, Dr. Lichtenfeld is a frequent spokesperson on a
variety of cancer-related subjects and serves as a liaison for the Society with
many professional and public organizations. More >>
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A research paper in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association provides unfortunately impressive evidence that erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, or ESAs, are in fact dangerous to the health of cancer patients.
The drugs, known by their trade names Procrit and Aranesp, have been the focus of intense scrutiny by patients, patient advocates, researchers, the press, politicians, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and others for much of the past year.
The current report, authored by a group of researchers from many well-regarded universities, shows that without a doubt ESAs lead to a much higher incidence of venous thromboembolism when patients treated with these drugs are compared to those who are not treated with ESAs.
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The FDA’s decision late Friday afternoon to provide “accelerated approval” for the use of Avastin in the first line treatment of HER-2 negative metastatic breast cancer was the culmination of a lot of handwringing and head scratching on the part of many people.
From my vantage point, the FDA made the right decision in a difficult situation. That said, this is not the end of this story.
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You may recall that for the past two years we reported there were actual declines in the number of people who died from cancer from 2002 to 2003, and 2003 compared to 2004. In fact, last year we reported that there were over 3000 fewer cancer deaths when comparing 2004 to 2003. (The reason for the delay in determining the number of cancer deaths 3 years previously has to do with the time it takes to get accurate information.)
At the time, we said we hoped the trend would continue. But we also cautioned it may not. After all, it takes many years to define a continuing trend, and variations from year to year can be hopeful or disappointing, but they may not define on ongoing direction.
This year, we report that from 2004 to 2005, there was an increase of 5,424 deaths from cancer in the United States.
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Last Friday the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced there is an increasing probability that the smoking cessation drug Chantix is associated with the onset of new, serious psychiatric symptoms. That raises a number of questions that could impact the use of this effective medication.
I can't say that I am surprised.
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