Merck's New Drug Seen As Breakthrough in Cancer Treatment
By Paul Kurtz
WEST POINT, Pa. (CBS) -- Area oncologists are hailing the FDA's approval of a new cancer drug developed by Merck, which has a large facility in Montgomery County.
The drug -- a new form of immunotherapy -- is called Keytruda. And it's being called a gamechanger in the field of cancer treatment.
The drug has been approved for use against melanoma, but Dr. Hossein Borghaei, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, says similar treatments are being developed to control other forms of cancer.
"We now have at least preliminary report that immunotherapy can be very effective in lung cancer," he tells KYW Newsradio. "There are many different companies working on developing drugs that, in essence, are thought of as taking the brake off the immune system, to allow the patients own immune system to recognize the tumor as foreign and to try to control the disease that way."
Bristol Myers expects to file for FDA approval of its new drug to treat melanoma by the end of the month.
