<story><title>Cancer Drug Proves to Be Effective Against Multiple Tumors</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/health/cancer-drug-keytruda-tumors.html?module=WatchingPortal&amp;region=c-column-middle-span-region&amp;pgType=Homepage&amp;action=click&amp;mediaId=none&amp;state=standard&amp;contentPlacement=19&amp;version=internal&amp;contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&amp;contentId=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F06%2F08%2Fhealth%2Fcancer-drug-keytruda-tumors.html&amp;eventName=Watching-article-click</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>pflats</author><text>I hate these articles. They give people a lot more hope than they probably should.&lt;p&gt;Keytruda&amp;#x2F;pembrolizumab  is not new. It&amp;#x27;s the same drug that Jimmy Carter famously took for his melanoma. It and Opdivo&amp;#x2F;nivolumab are PD-1 inhibitors that are amazing developments in treating late-stage cancer that doesn&amp;#x27;t respond to chemotherapy.&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re also not the miracle that news articles like to breathlessly push. This one does a decent job of pointing out that this is the first time a drug has been approved to treat cancer based on its genetic profile, rather than the type of cancer. That&amp;#x27;s an awesome development!&lt;p&gt;But then you get language like this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;All carried genetic mutations that disrupted the ability of cells to fix damaged DNA. And all were enrolled in a trial of a drug that helps the immune system attack tumors.&lt;p&gt;The results, published on Thursday in the journal Science, are so striking that the Food and Drug Administration already has approved the drug, pembrolizumab, brand name Keytruda, for patients whose cancers arise from the same genetic abnormality.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Compared to the abstract:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Objective radiographic responses were observed in 53% of patients and complete responses were achieved in 21% of patients.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s around the 30% success rate these drugs usually have. They&amp;#x27;re great, and they can change your life - if you&amp;#x27;re one of the lucky ones. If you have a family member that needs this treatment, I hope it works.&lt;p&gt;But it&amp;#x27;s a lot of money and a lot of hope for a treatment with some rough side effects that for the average patient   will either do nothing or give them a few more months to live.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a development, a great one, but the reports really need to rein in their enthusiasm. I&amp;#x27;d be curious to see the entire statements the doctors in the article made, because I imagine they were more tempered than the selected quotations imply.</text></comment>
<story><title>Cancer Drug Proves to Be Effective Against Multiple Tumors</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/health/cancer-drug-keytruda-tumors.html?module=WatchingPortal&amp;region=c-column-middle-span-region&amp;pgType=Homepage&amp;action=click&amp;mediaId=none&amp;state=standard&amp;contentPlacement=19&amp;version=internal&amp;contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&amp;contentId=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F06%2F08%2Fhealth%2Fcancer-drug-keytruda-tumors.html&amp;eventName=Watching-article-click</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>hentrep</author><text>This is a great move toward biomarker-driven, tumor-site agnostic targeted therapies in oncology. I attended ASCO 2017 last week, where LOXO showcased data from larotrectinib in a variety of adult and pediatric indications with Trk-fusions. The waterfall plot is fairly impressive, and I&amp;#x27;d be shocked if this drug was not the next to be approved across cancers based on biomarker status alone. A decent summary about it here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;endpts.com&amp;#x2F;loxo-takes-center-stage-at-asco-with-its-groundbreaking-shot-at-a-biomarker-based-cancer-drug-approval&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;endpts.com&amp;#x2F;loxo-takes-center-stage-at-asco-with-its-...&lt;/a&gt;
Company presentation here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.loxooncology.com&amp;#x2F;docs&amp;#x2F;presentations&amp;#x2F;Hyman_Larotrectinib_ASCO_2017_FINAL.PDF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.loxooncology.com&amp;#x2F;docs&amp;#x2F;presentations&amp;#x2F;Hyman_Larotr...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>