Scientists from the United States are reporting a great result after an early trial of a mulit-kinase inhibitor which has shown impressive tumor shrinkage in patients with a hard to treat form of thyroid cancer.

What is Thyroid Cancer?

Thyroid cancer is a cancer that starts in the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is under the Adam’s apple in the front part of the neck. In most people, it cannot be seen or felt. It is butterfly shaped, with 2 lobes — the right lobe and the left lobe — joined by a narrow isthmus (see picture below). Cancer.org

Assistant Professor Pasi Janne of Harvard University Medical School and Professor Steven Sherman of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center said, since the trial results are encouraging and promissing; put the drug’s development on a fast track, prompting the accelerated initiation of a large phase III trial.

The compound, XL184, targets cell growth and migration, as well as angiogenesis (blood vessel growth). The clinical trial that’s been initiated will test XL184 with and without erlotinib (Tarceva), a drug used to treat non-small lung, pancreatic and other cancers. XL184 is also being studied in glioblastoma.

Another cancer drug development was reported recently by U.S, Canadian and French scientists who developed a drug delivery system that is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier to kill brain tumor cells.  Dr. Jean-Paul Castaigne of Angiochem, Inc., who presented the clinical trials results, said to date, “the safety and tolerability of ANG1005 has been excellent in patients with advanced solid tumors and brain metastases.”