New approved treatment for advanced skin cancer

New approved treatment for advanced skin cancer

24 Jul 2015

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Novartis’s oral pill, Odomzo, to treat basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of advanced skin cancer.

Basal cell carcinoma is generally a slow growing and painless form of skin cancer that starts in the top layer of the skin. It develops on areas of skin that are regularly exposed to sunlight or other ultraviolet radiation. Although locally advanced basal skin cancer does not spread to other parts of the body, it cannot be cured with surgery or radiation therapy.

FDA box “warning” label

The drug will carry a boxed warning to alert about the risk of causing death or severe birth defects in a developing fetus when administered to a pregnant woman. Odomzo targets patients with locally advanced basal cell carcinoma. It halts or reduces the growth of cancerous tissues by suppressing the molecular pathway active in basal cell cancers.

The first pill to be approved by the FDA for the condition was Roche’s Erivedge, in 2012.

 

Source: Reuters