Eli Lilly's Cyramza Approved for Stomach Cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Cyramza (ramucirumab) to treat patients with advanced stomach cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, a form of cancer located in the region where the esophagus joins the stomach.

Stomach cancer forms in the tissues lining the stomach and mostly affects older adults. According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 22,220 Americans will be diagnosed with stomach cancer and 10,990 will die from the disease, this year.

Cyramza is an angiogenesis inhibitor that blocks the blood supply to tumors. It is intended for patients whose cancer cannot be surgically removed (unresectable) or has spread (metastatic) after being treated with a fluoropyrimidine- or platinum-containing therapy.

“Although the rates of stomach cancer in the United States have decreased over the past 40 years, patients require new treatment options, particularly when they no longer respond to other therapies,” said Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Cyramza is new treatment option that has demonstrated an ability to extend patients’ lives and slow tumor growth.”

Read the press release here: http://1.usa.gov/1rat9Fr

Source: U.S. FDA