On the 28th, a message began to spread on the Internet: a broad-spectrum anticancer drug vitrakvi was officially launched in the United States. It has an effective rate of 75% for 17 kinds of tumors, and has "miraculous effect" for advanced patients whose tumors cannot be removed or have metastasized.

Cancer nemesis has really come to the world? The reporter of science and technology daily logged into the official website of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and found that on the 26th local time, the FDA did approve the anti-cancer drug vitrakvi jointly developed by Loxo oncology and Bayer.

The drug has long strings of long ago attribution: it is used to treat adult or child solid tumors carrying NTRK (a neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase) gene fusion. These patients do not produce known resistance mutations, and are metastatic or resectable, which may lead to serious incidence rate.

Different from the "first anticancer drug that has nothing to do with tumor type" mentioned by Internet news, FDA said this is the second "tissue uncertain" cancer drug it approved. The so-called "tissue uncertainty" means that the indication is not determined according to the tissue, organ or source of tumor.

"The current targeted anticancer drugs usually first look for therapeutic targets for a specific kind of tumor. But this time, the drugs have found effective targets for many different types of solid tumors," tie Luo, associate researcher of Institute of medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said in an interview with science and technology daily.

According to the information disclosed by FDA, the overall remission rate (ORR) of this drug is 75%. The information also provides the test results of 12 tumors, including soft tissue sarcoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumor.

"This broad spectrum is quoted, but it covers more types of tumors," tie Luo said.

Tie Luo explained that according to the information disclosed on the official website, this drug is indeed effective for a variety of solid tumors. But he believes that for the "broad spectrum" of this drug, readers may be misled by online information.

"This drug actually only targets a rare gene mutation, that is, patients with solid tumors carrying NTRK gene fusion. This gene mutation may occur in a variety of solid tumors, but its probability is very low," tie Luo said, so it is not effective for all solid tumor patients.

Tie Luo also believes that although the probability of this gene mutation is very low, this drug opens a new pathway for cancer treatment. It gives the medical profession a new hint: tumors may have something in common, and we can find common targets to deal with it.

"It can be said that it is of great significance in scientific research, but we should objectively understand its clinical significance," tie Luo said.

Source：Science and Technology Daily The pictures in the text come from the Internet

Editor: Chen Xiaoqi

Reviewed by: Wang Xiaolong