The Reading Room: Cycle of a Drug Trial

Hatshepsut

This article appeared in today's New York Times. The story chronicles the efforts of doctors and patients who once had great hope for a new targeted drug, PLX4032, for treating melanoma and potentially many other kinds of cancer, only to find that the drug's use netted a relatively short period of remission. The story is particularly interesting and poignant, I think, because it follows the doctors' frustrating efforts to convince the drug companies to permit the use of multiple-drug combinations despite the implications for drug company profits.

Link: Cycle of a Drug Trial

This article is part of a series of three articles on this targeted drug technique. Here is a link to the series:

Link:Target Cancer Series

Here is a link to an interview with the author of this series of articles. There is a reference in the Q and A to the applicability of this targeted drug/approach to colon cancer treatment:

Link: Interview about Cancer Clinical Trials

Hatshepsut