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Kidney cancer drugs offer hope
Compiled from Times wires
Published June 5, 2006
ATLANTA - For decades, it has been one of cancer's great mysteries: Why do about 4 percent of kidney tumors spontaneously disappear? Doctors believed if the immune system was defeating the cancer, treatments to boost it might help the others, but that hasn't worked very well. Now, three new drugs are displacing the immune system theory and attacking the disease in different ways. A Pfizer drug, Sutent, prevented tumor growth twice as long as immune therapy did in a study of 750 people whose disease had spread beyond the kidney. An experimental drug, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals' temsirolimus, performed even better, boosting survival - not just delaying tumor growth - in a study of 419 very ill patients with widely spread kidney cancer. Today, results are expected on a third drug - Nexavar, made by Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. "Until just a few years ago, there were no promising drugs for kidney cancer," said Dr. Gary Hudes of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. There still is no cure, "but these drugs can control the disease for a significant amount of time," he said. Neighbors mourn Ind. murder victims INDIANAPOLIS - A neighborhood mourned the deaths of seven family members Sunday, somewhat comforted by news that police believed they had arrested everyone responsible for the city's worst mass murder in at least 25 years. A memorial service was scheduled for Sunday night in front of the home where Emma Valdez, 46, and Alberto Covarrubias, 56, were gunned down during a robbery three days earlier along with two adult children, two young children and a grandchild. The sidewalk in front of the home has become a shrine to the family, with neighbors, friends and others leaving an angel statue, candles, flowers, ribbons and stuffed animals in tribute to them. The main suspect in the slayings, Desmond Turner, 28, was being held without bail Sunday on seven charges of murder and one charge of robbery. Elsewhere... WHITE HOUSE INTRUDER: The Secret Service apprehended a man who was trying to jump the fence on the south side of the White House on Sunday. The Secret Service identified the man as Roger Witmer, 44, of Washington, who faces charges of unlawful entry and disorderly conduct. TROOPS AT BORDER: The first National Guard troops sent to assist immigration agents prepared Sunday to work on projects near a fortified stretch of desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. The 55 Utah National Guard members are to begin extending fences, improving gravel roads and working on border lighting near the town of San Luis, Ariz.
[Last modified June 5, 2006, 05:40:45]
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