Study: New Liver Cancer Treatment Helps Survival Rates

The results of a recent study on a new drug to treat liver cancer are showing positive signs, reports the Associated Press.

Each type of cancer has its own characteristics that need to be tackled in order for treatment to be successful some cancers like, liver cancer, are particularly difficult to treat.

The new drug is in the form of a simple-to-administer pill that doctors are saying is giving patients suffering from liver cancer a better survival rate.

In the study, 602 people suffering from liver cancer that was at a well-developed stage were split into two separate groups, with one receiving a placebo and the other receiving the cancer drug, which is called sorafenib. Each patient received two pills per day during the study which began in 2005. Even though the cancer drug did not cure the patients, it on average gave them a longer period of survival. The results show that the average survival time was increased by nearly three months and some of the patients in the study are still living today.

The study found that the pill, sorafenib, seems to stop the tumours growth, though the tumours did not go away completely or get any smaller.

The head writer of the study, from New York's Mont Sinai School of Medicine and the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona in Spain, Dr. Josep Llovet, told the Associated Press that the increase in survival time for liver cancer patients, "has never happened and is a major breakthrough in the management of the disease."

Dr. Josep Llovet also told the Associated Press, "You are not curing the disease but you are delaying the progression of the disease significantly and strikingly." The positive results from the study allowed the researchers to stop the study prematurely so that the patients getting the placebo go get the cancer treatment pill, sorafenib.

Another doctor discussing the study with the Associated Press, Dr. Nancy Davidson from the Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, "That may not sound like a lot of time" however, "this is actually a quite impressive gain." "It is the first effective systemic treatment for liver cancer, which is such a huge problem internationally."