Pfizer Inc. Lung Drug Stops Deadly Child Cancers in Study

A Pfizer (PFE) Inc. drug that has transformed treatment for adult lung cancers caused by a gene defect is now saving children with deadly tumors. Pfizer’s Xalkori eradicated signs of malignancy in some kids with rare tumors of the nerves, blood and soft tissue, according to findings released yesterday in advance of the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting that starts June 1. The three tumor types can be driven by ALK gene mutations targeted by Xalkori. The results show how medicines that target genetic flaws can be first tested in one cancer and then rapidly applied to other malignancies with the same gene abnormality. The drug helped kids with all three tumors, with the most impressive results seen in a blood cancer called anaplastic large cell lymphoma. In these cases, all signs of cancer vanished in 7 of 8 kids who got the drug.

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