Brain Cancer Drug Gets Wider Approval

THURSDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Schering-Plough drug Temodar (temozolomide) for people with the most common form of brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

Some 8,000 to 10,000 cases of the usually fatal illness are diagnosed in North America each year, the FDA said in a statement. Clinical trials involving 573 patients found the drug extended survival by an average of 14.6 months when combined with radiation treatments, versus 12.1 months for those who received radiation alone.

The drug was first approved in 1999 to treat adult forms of a rarer brain tumor, anaplastic astrocytoma, if the tumor had relapsed after chemotherapy.

To learn more about brain cancer, visit the National Library of Medicine.

~FDA-~~-BRN~