New and Emerging Treatments in Lung Cancer
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Fast Track Drugs
FDA
Fast Track status
Since 1997, the FDA has had the ability to grant fast track status to drugs
that may treat serious or life-threatening diseases and address an unmet
medical need or those drugs that have the potential to be an advance in
treatment for a serious illness.
It is important to understand that these drugs are currently only available
to patients enrolled in clinical trials.
Visit our Clinical Trials section
to learn more about clinical trials.
Check our Lung Cancer in the News for
ongoing updates on these drugs and other emerging treatments.
The following drugs have been granted a fast track designation by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, but have not yet been approved.
BLP25 liposome vaccine (L-BLP25)
- a synthetic vaccine designed to induce an immune response to cancer cells
- fast track
status granted in September 2004. The FDA based its approval on
clinical trials that showed that patients treated with the novel
vaccine survived 4.4 months longer than those who received only standard
therapy
- being developed by Biomira, Inc.
TTS CD3
- fast track
status granted in December 2004, for the treatment
of non-small cell lung cancer
- being developed by Active
Biotech
Xyotax (CT-2103)
- a paclitaxel-based chemotherapy drug
- based on preclinical studies, it
appears that Xyotax may be potentially more effective and have less severe
side effects than currently available chemotherapeutics
- being developed by Cell
Therapeutics
Xcytrin (motexafin gadolinium)
- fast track
status granted in 2004 for the treatment
of brain metastases in patients suffering from non-small-cell lung cancer
- being developed by Pharmacyclics, Inc.
