Iressa beneficial as gene-targeting drug

The gene-targeting drug Iressa is proving beneficial for lung-cancer patients who are Asian or non-smokers, a Harvard Medical School oncologist said.

The success of Iressa is spurring pharmaceutical companies to develop genetically targeted drugs to improve the treatment of numerous forms of cancer, said Lecia Sequist, an oncologist at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.

This is the direction cancer care is going, Sequist told the Wall Street Journal in a story published Friday.

While Iressa made little impression as an overall lung cancer drug when introduced by AstraZeneca in 2002, it has proved effective among Asians and non-smokers who have lung cancer, said David Carbone, an oncologist at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville.

It is a great example of how genetics can be used to guide therapy, Carbone said.

Targeted drugs, such as Iressa, and Herceptin for breast cancer, only kill cancer cells, which means they often have fewer side effects, the oncologists said.