Promising New Drug to Fight Against Cancer
My law firm stays highly motivated to help all our clients, especially those fighting hard against cancers caused by dangerous drug products and defective medical devices. Fortunately, promising new clinical drug trials continue — like those created for Merck’s drug Keytruda.
The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) broke new ground when it approved this cancer drug since Keytruda is the first one that isn’t directly tied to just one specific organ or part of the body.
One particularly successful, privately-funded drug trial involved 86 cancer patients who had previously benefitted little from other treatments. These results, set forth in greater detail below, clearly indicate that drugs designed to help patients’ own immune systems fight more effectively may offer the greatest chances for recovery or remission.
Watch Youtube Video – Cancer Drug Keytruda, Immunotherapy Drug that Aided Jimmy Carter’s Cancer – A Huge Deal
Encouraging Results for 66 Out of 86 Participants – Published in Science Journal
Back in May 2017, the (FDA) approved the use of Pembrolizumab (also known as Keytruda). This immunotherapy drug is a PD-1 blocker that helps unmask cancer cells so that a patient’s own immune system can more efficiently locate and destroy them.
In other words, most cancer cells defeat the immune system’s efforts by shielding damaging proteins on a tumor’s surface. Of the 86 cancer patients who took part in this recent drug trial, 66 of them saw their tumors greatly shrink and stabilize. Eighteen (18) others among the same 66 patients were even more fortunate. After they took Keytruda for an extended time, their tumors completely disappeared and haven’t returned.
What Does It Currently Cost to Be Treated with Cancer Drug Keytruda?
At present, this drug treatment is very expensive. It costs roughly $13,000 a month or $156,000 annually. Obviously, that cost must be greatly reduced before large numbers of patients can afford this treatment. Furthermore, most health insurance companies won’t cover treatments that they deem experimental.
However, before anyone can try and obtain this drug, the patient must first be tested to see if their cancer involves specific types of mutations that Keytruda is designed to address. This test currently only costs between $300 and $600.
Can Drug Keytruda Was Discovered Due to the Failure of An Earlier Drug
Although many drug trials fail to produce highly desirable results, researchers can still learn something useful about why specific drugs fail. For example, although the prior drug Nivolumab initially looked promising when it was given to 33 colon cancer patients, only one patient truly benefitted from it (his cancer completely vanished).
That odd result challenged researchers to try and figure out what had worked so well for that one patient. In pursing an answer to that question, they learned much more about genetic mutations – and wound up developing Keytruda.
How Many Americans Might Soon Annually Benefit from Cancer Drug Keytruda?
Only about four percent (4%) of patients have the type of genetic mutation that can benefit from Keytruda. However, doctors note that this may mean that about 60,000 Americans may be annually helped by it.
Related Articles by Ed Smith ~
- What Are Injury Lawyers?
- Sacramento Ovarian Cancer Lawyer
- Sacramento Mesothelioma/Asbestos Lawyer
- Sacramento Talcum Powder Injury Lawyer
- Sacramento Uterine Cancer Lawyer
Sacramento Personal Injury Lawyers
I’m Ed Smith, a Sacramento Injury Lawyer. If you or a loved one have been hurt due to someone else’s carelessness, please give me a call at (916) 921-6400 for free, friendly advice. I can be reached free of charge by calling (800) 404-5400.
My client reviews may be inspected by clicking on any of these links: Avvo (a lawyer rating site), Yelp, and Google.
I am a California injury lawyer inducted into the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. The forum is made up of top trial lawyers in the United States who have settled cases or obtained verdicts worth more than $1 Million.
See some of the Verdicts and Settlements of our injury lawyers.
Click to access keytruda_mg.pdf
:eBs bw cv