Nearly twice as long without growing: a tumour-targeted drug holds a rare cancer back for 11.4 months

Salivary gland cancer is rare, and once it has spread there are few treatments that work for long. Faridoxorubicin takes a familiar chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin, and repackages it so it stays inactive until it reaches the tumour, where a protein found in many cancers switches it on — concentrating the medicine where it is needed and sparing the rest of the body. In updated trial results shared at the European Society for Medical Oncology congress in Madrid, 32 patients whose cancers were treated with the drug went a median of 11.4 months before the disease grew again, close to double the 6 to 6.7 months usually seen with standard chemotherapy or targeted drugs. Nine of the 32 saw their tumours shrink, some for well over a year, and the treatment was generally well tolerated. It is early data from a small group, and larger trials must confirm it — but for patients with almost no good options, nearly twice the breathing room matters.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation