Using two opposite strategies, one focused and one broad, scientists say they have made progress in taming two of the most intractable types of cancer.<\/p>\n
The focused approach shrank tumors significantly in a majority of patients with advanced lung cancer marked by a specific genetic abnormality.<\/p>\n
Even though the clinical trial was small (just 82 people, with no control group), the results were considered so striking for such sick patients that the study will be featured Sunday at the main session of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a phenomenal example of finding the right patient and the right drug very early on,\u201d\u009d said Dr. Pasi A. Janne of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who was involved in the trial.<\/p>\n