Experimental cancer pill from Roche offers new hope

Researchers reported today that an experimental cancer pill from Roche's Genentech shrank tumors in patients whose basal cell skin cancer had spread to other organs, according to a Reuters report. The results from an early stage study suggested that a new class of drugs may also have an effect on other cancers. The drug,developed in partnership with Curis Inc), shrank tumors in half of a small group of patients. The only potential problem is that at least one person has developed resistance to the drug-- known as GDC-0449-- after it helped shrink tumors from an aggressive type of childhood brain cancer called medulloblastoma. The studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the journal Science, offer a first look a promising new class of drugs that block the Hedgehog signaling pathway, which involves several proteins that play a role in cell growth.