Skin Cancer Medication News Update: Daily Drug Gets FDA Approval

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Skin cancer cases have increased in number over the past few years, with individuals getting the said cancer from sunbathing, sunburn artsand exposure to sunburn. Fortunately, a new drug from the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has been given the green light by the US Food and Drug Administration after it has shown possibilities of reducing the size of cancer tumors by 58 percent among patients.

Fox 59 News writes that the pill Odomzo has shown great results in helping patients with tumors that are difficult to remove or have recurred after radiation therapy or surgery. Dr. Christopher Obeime, a dermatologist from St. Vincent Hospital, said with the discovery of the new research, Odomzo is proven to show promising results for basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer. Dr. Obeime explains that it can only be used for individuals with severe cases of this type of skin cancer which can’t be resected or radiated.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, the efficiency of Odomzo has been tested and established through the help of a multicenter, double-blind clinical testing in 66 patients with locally advanced basal carcinoma who received 200 mg of the pill, and 128 patients received 800 mg of the pill daily. This has also been the findings where the FDA has based the side effects of Odomzo, which were most common in the higher dosage.

Medical News Today reports that skin cancer is rapidly becoming the most common cancer in the US and they are mostly nonmelanoma, 80 percent of which is the basal cell carcinoma. The National Cancer Institute has reported that the number of Americans have increased in significant numbers annually.

Basal cell carcinoma occurs in the epidermis or the top layer of the skin. This is where regular sun exposure or ultraviolet radiation usually takes place and is mostly seen on the head, neck or nose area. If it spreads in nearby tissues, this is known as locally advanced basal cell carcinoma and is highly unresponsive to surgery or radiation therapy, making it prone to disfiguration.

Dr. Richard Pazdure, the director of Hematology and Oncology products in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research said that it is giving credit to the understanding of the Hedgehod pathway for giving way to the approval of two drugs fro skin cancer in just three years. Erivedge is the other treatment that FDA has approved last 2012 and is marketed by Genentech in California.