Washington, Sept 27: Experimental drug axitinib has been found to have potential to bring respite to patients with advanced kidney cancer, whose options run out after their tumour fails to respond to the cutting edge therapy.

The study, led by Dr Brian I. Rini an associate professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and a paid member of the Pfizer scientific advisory board, demonstrated that the drug shrank tumours, and delayed the disease’s progression.

The researchers administered axitinib to 62 patients, whose kidney cancer had spread and who had not benefited from standard treatment, sorafenib, a targeted therapy designed to block the tumour’s ability to form new blood vessels that help it grow.

After the sorafenib had failed to work, fourteen of the patients had been given another similarly targeted drug, sunitinib.

“More than half the patients – 51 percent – experienced tumour shrinkage and in 23 percent of them the shrinkage is considered significant,” Dr Brian I. Rini said.

“Preliminary analysis shows the progression-free survival was on average more than 7.7 months. We think these results are impressive because these patients were heavily pre-treated and with drugs thought to be similar to axitinib,” he said.

The study revealed that in 37 per cent of the patients, the tumour remained stable.

“The disease progressed in only 24 percent of patients, which we think is low in this kind of setting. Through the results of this trial, it appears that axitinib is a very active drug in renal cell cancer that can benefit a large number of patients,” Rini added.

The study was presented at the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) in Barcelona (With inputs from ANI)