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American Morning
'Paging Dr. Gupta'
Aired February 13, 2004 - 08:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Erbitux is the cancer drug at the center of Martha Stewart's legal trouble. And now, this week it has been given FDA approval. The OK comes from regulators after two years of rejections that sent the ImClone scandal in motion.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks about medical side of this story.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Yes, it's been a business story for so long. Andy Serwer has been doing a great job of covering that, but it's also a medical story, obviously, as well, possibly providing help for colon cancer patients. First a few facts, 56,000 people die every year of colon cancer alone. It is the third most common cancer among both men and women. And if it gets into the end stages, often there is no hope, which is why there was so much excitement around Erbitux now for so long. It was first called C225, and was going to be one of the first drugs to actually be approved for end-stage colon cancer by the FDA. That approval coming just yesterday.
It's a part of a class of new drugs that does things a little bit differently. A few facts about the drug itself. It is for end-stage colon cancer, first of all. That is what the approval is for specifically. It still needs to be used with traditional chemotherapy. It's used in conjunction with those things. Specifically, it blocks growth receptor in the cancer cells. We'll talk more about that. One in 5 patients, about 22 percent of them, had a 50 percent reduction in their tumor size, which are pretty impressive numbers there.
Still, Bill, doctors are being cautious about this. No one is calling this secure yet by any means. We have talked to several doctors about this.
Here's what one of them had to say:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LEONARD SALTZ, MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING: These aren't wonder drugs, these aren't cures, these aren't breakthrough drugs. These are modest steps forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: So not a cure by any means, Bill, but certainly a significant step forward. Again, that approval coming just yesterday -- Bill. HEMMER: How exactly, medically speaking, how does it attack these tumors?
GUPTA: Let's be clear about this. We have an animation to sort of describe. When you talk about chemotherapy, for example, chemotherapy gets into the body. You see a body here, a person who has cancer. When the chemotherapy gets in, it really strikes all over the body and kills all sorts of cells, which is why people who take these drugs oftentimes because nauseated, they lose their hair, they can have significant side effects with this drug.
Now, if you have a cancer cell, specifically, why a cancer cell is allowed to grow, is because it has a little receptor on top of the cell which attracts growth factors. That allows the cancer cell to grow, to divide and to become a tumor. Erbitux, there's a drug actually comes in there, and blocks those growth factors from ever getting to the cancer cell, so the cancer cells do not grow as fast, and subsequently, the cancer cell becomes more vulnerable to chemotherapy. That's how it works. It's called an antibody, monoclomia (ph) antibody. Interesting way to sort of treat cancer, but, again, first time really approved for end-stage colon cancer.
HEMMER: Maybe the most important question this -- now with FDA approval, when could it become available for patients?
GUPTA: That's right. That is the most important question. Patients are at the core of this. It will probably still be several months, but as I mentioned earlier, Bill, a lot of patients have been waiting for quite some time. We went out and spoke to some of these patients. Here's what one had to say:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's important that drugs be safe, and it's important that we test them out, but it's also important to put them in the hands of physicians and to be able to make them available to patients who need them and who don't have any other options.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: And that's the point, really, these are patients who don't have any other options at the end stage, and they've been told by they're doctors. There's nothing else really to do. Erbitux may provide hope for those patients, Bill.
HEMMER: Sanjay, thanks. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, talk to you again on the next hour on a completely different matter.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 13, 2004 - 08:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Erbitux is the cancer drug at the center of Martha Stewart's legal trouble. And now, this week it has been given FDA approval. The OK comes from regulators after two years of rejections that sent the ImClone scandal in motion.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks about medical side of this story.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Yes, it's been a business story for so long. Andy Serwer has been doing a great job of covering that, but it's also a medical story, obviously, as well, possibly providing help for colon cancer patients. First a few facts, 56,000 people die every year of colon cancer alone. It is the third most common cancer among both men and women. And if it gets into the end stages, often there is no hope, which is why there was so much excitement around Erbitux now for so long. It was first called C225, and was going to be one of the first drugs to actually be approved for end-stage colon cancer by the FDA. That approval coming just yesterday.
It's a part of a class of new drugs that does things a little bit differently. A few facts about the drug itself. It is for end-stage colon cancer, first of all. That is what the approval is for specifically. It still needs to be used with traditional chemotherapy. It's used in conjunction with those things. Specifically, it blocks growth receptor in the cancer cells. We'll talk more about that. One in 5 patients, about 22 percent of them, had a 50 percent reduction in their tumor size, which are pretty impressive numbers there.
Still, Bill, doctors are being cautious about this. No one is calling this secure yet by any means. We have talked to several doctors about this.
Here's what one of them had to say:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LEONARD SALTZ, MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING: These aren't wonder drugs, these aren't cures, these aren't breakthrough drugs. These are modest steps forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: So not a cure by any means, Bill, but certainly a significant step forward. Again, that approval coming just yesterday -- Bill. HEMMER: How exactly, medically speaking, how does it attack these tumors?
GUPTA: Let's be clear about this. We have an animation to sort of describe. When you talk about chemotherapy, for example, chemotherapy gets into the body. You see a body here, a person who has cancer. When the chemotherapy gets in, it really strikes all over the body and kills all sorts of cells, which is why people who take these drugs oftentimes because nauseated, they lose their hair, they can have significant side effects with this drug.
Now, if you have a cancer cell, specifically, why a cancer cell is allowed to grow, is because it has a little receptor on top of the cell which attracts growth factors. That allows the cancer cell to grow, to divide and to become a tumor. Erbitux, there's a drug actually comes in there, and blocks those growth factors from ever getting to the cancer cell, so the cancer cells do not grow as fast, and subsequently, the cancer cell becomes more vulnerable to chemotherapy. That's how it works. It's called an antibody, monoclomia (ph) antibody. Interesting way to sort of treat cancer, but, again, first time really approved for end-stage colon cancer.
HEMMER: Maybe the most important question this -- now with FDA approval, when could it become available for patients?
GUPTA: That's right. That is the most important question. Patients are at the core of this. It will probably still be several months, but as I mentioned earlier, Bill, a lot of patients have been waiting for quite some time. We went out and spoke to some of these patients. Here's what one had to say:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's important that drugs be safe, and it's important that we test them out, but it's also important to put them in the hands of physicians and to be able to make them available to patients who need them and who don't have any other options.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: And that's the point, really, these are patients who don't have any other options at the end stage, and they've been told by they're doctors. There's nothing else really to do. Erbitux may provide hope for those patients, Bill.
HEMMER: Sanjay, thanks. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, talk to you again on the next hour on a completely different matter.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
