Colon cancer patients to be offered drug trial
Second phase trials of the Japanese drug TAS-102 have shown that heavily pre-treated patients can gain an average of three extra months of life. The Bon Secours Hospital expects to join a worldwide phase-three trial in the coming months. Consultant medical oncologist Dr Brian Bird said the drug would be offered to up to 10 patients with heavily pre-treated metastatic unresectable colon cancer, in other words, cancer which has spread beyond the colon and is inoperable.
“Patients with no other options available to them will have a two in three chance of getting the drug if they take part in the trial and a one in three chance of getting a placebo [dummy drug],” said Dr Bird.
