Pfizer Canada has announced that the recently approved oral monotherapy treatment Xalkori (crizotinib) for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is now available to Canadian patients.
This disease is notoriously hard to treat successfully, as symptoms tend not to appear until the disease is in advanced stages.
Approximately 25,600 people in Canada will receive a lung cancer diagnosis in 2012, and the disease will kill over 20,000. Lung cancer is by far the biggest killer among cancer subtypes in canada, accounting for over one-quarter of all cancer deaths. Every day 70 Canadians on average are diagnosed with lung cancer, and each day 55 die of the disease.
"Little has changed in the way lung cancer has been treated in the past 40 years6," says Dr. Normand Blais, Hemato-Oncologist at CHUM - Hôpital Notre-Dame in Montreal. "Previously lung cancer was considered a single disease. With the discovery of molecular biomarkers, such as ALK, we now know there are numerous types of lung cancers. New care options for these types of cancers can give hope to those who are or will be diagnosed with them."
Xalkori is Pfizer Canada's first example of personalized medicine for patients diagnosed with ALK+ NSCLC.
Source: Therapeutics Daily
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