By Curt Pesman and Mary Miller

In an unusual move, sanofi pharmaceutical company has instituted a 50 percent discount, effective immediately, on its latest cancer drug Zaltrap.  The reason for the sharp price drop, company officials said, was “market resistance” to the initial price.

Zaltrap was approved in August by the FDA for second-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer.

One possible result of the price cut is that the new drug may become more widely available. However, due to complex pricing and regulation issues, it’s not yet known how the actual cost to patients will change over the next several months. Fight Colorectal Cancer is gathering more information today on this issue from oncologists and company officials. Read the rest of this entry »

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center made a very public announcement—and explanation—today in a New York Times op-ed about why they will not offer the new drug Zaltrap® (ziv-aflibercept) to its metastatic colorectal cancer patients.

The authors, all world-renowned cancer specialists at the world’s oldest cancer center, in an op-ed headlined “In Cancer Care, Cost Matters,” essentially challenged other cancer centers to take action where politicians fear to tread.

“We recently made a decision that should have been a no-brainer,” wrote Drs. Peter B. Bach, Leonard B. Saltz and Robert E. Wittes. “The drug, Zaltrap, has proved to be no better than a similar medicine we already have for advanced colorectal cancer, while its price—at $11,063 on average for a month of treatment—is more than twice as high.” Read the rest of this entry »

Approximately 80 more participants are needed for a multisite, Phase 3 clinical trial comparing laparoscopic-assisted versus conventional surgery in patients with stage IIA, Stage IIIA or stage IIIB rectal cancer. 

Eligible participants must have completed their pre-surgery chemotherapy (Xelox™ or fluorouracil-based) and/or pre-surgery radiation therapy within the previous 4 weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo credit: Bayer Pharmaceuticals

The FDA today approved the use of the drug regorafenib (brand name Stivarga) for patients whose metastatic colorectal cancer has progressed despite all currently approved treatment regimens.

This is the second new drug approved by the FDA recently after a drought of 5 years in approving new treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Regorafenib was placed into the  FDA’s “fast-track” approval process after the international, multicenter Phase III CORRECT trial  showed improved survival (from 5 to 6.4 months) in all mCRC patients, including those having both non-mutated and mutated KRAS types. Read the rest of this entry »

Some of the most surprising data presented at the GI Symposium in January 2011 in San Francisco was the negative result of the European trial called AVANT.

Dr. HJ Lenz

In that clinical trial patients who underwent a curative resection for colon cancer received either FOLFOX or FOLFOX with Avastin® (bevacizumab) treatment after their surgery. Chemotherapy was given over 6 months, but patients who were randomly selected for Avastin received 6 months with chemotherapy and additional  6 months alone after chemotherapy ended for a total of 12 months of Avastin. Read the rest of this entry »