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Drug stalls progression of thyroid cancer

Marcia S. Brose, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ‘05-‘10) of University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues, reported results from a Phase 3 clinical trial (DECISION trial) demonstrating that the FDA-approved drug Nexavar (sorafenib) stopped metastatic thyroid cancers from progressing – nearly doubling progression-free survival from 5.8 to 10.8 months. This result is particularly exciting because no new drugs have been approved for this form of thyroid cancer in 40 years. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and featured in The Wall Street Journal.