Hong Kong - A new drug has been found to be effective in reversing or arresting the spread of liver cancer in terminally ill patients, a Hong Kong news report said Wednesday. In tests on 16 Hong Kong patients, most of whom had life expectancies of three months or less, the drug significantly reduced the tumours of two patients by more than 30 per cent and stabilised tumour growth in four other patients.
Doctors at the University of Hong Kong believe that the drug, Sorafenib, may offer "new hope" to dying patients, improving their condition to the extent that they can undergo conventional therapy such as transplants.
The tests on the drug have been carried out by university doctors since last year on liver cancer patients too ill to undergo conventional therapy, the South China Morning Post reported.
The drug appears to be effective because it suppresses the growth of cancer cells and also inhibits the growth of blood vessels that supply nutrition to the tumours, the newspaper said.
However, it has so far been effective in reducing the size of tumours in only 13 per cent of patients and the drug would cost patients almost 5,000 US dollars a month, doctors quoted by the newspaper conceded.
