Treatment For Cachexia

[dropkickpa]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/119520.php

- Ark's Vitor™ Commences Patient Enrolment Into Phase III Pilot Study

Ark Therapeutics Group plc ("Ark" or the "Company") announces that enrolment of patients into its Phase III pilot study for VitorTM (Study 208) has commenced. VitorTM is Ark's product to treat cachexia (involuntary muscle wasting) associated with cancer.

Study 208 is a blinded, randomised, placebo controlled, multicentre trial in up to 64 patients being conducted in five countries in Europe. The trial will study the effect of VitorTM on patients with non-small cell lung cancer who are already experiencing clinical signs of cachexia. Patients will be assessed for their rate of muscle wasting during an initial blinded study run-in period of up to 6 weeks, and thereafter randomised to active or control treatment for a further 12 week period. Total weight loss, lean body mass and other physical markers of cachexia will be assessed using a variety of methodologies. The study results will provide data to support the design of the final Phase III programme.

VitorTM has been awarded Fast Track Status by the FDA reflecting the high clinical need for an effective product to treat cachexia, which affects up to 70% of patients with solid tumours and is the most frequently reported cause of death in these patients. A Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) process was opened with the FDA in 2007. The Company is expected to enter full Phase III development in 2009 following completion of this pilot study.

A Phase II/III study of VitorTM in 165 patients has already been completed in the USA and Europe, where treatment showed a significant effect compared with placebo in reducing the rate of daily weight loss in patients with small cell lung and colon cancer.

Cachexia is one of the most damaging things about cancer (and is VERY hard on the patients family, they see their loved one just wasting away to nothing, it's heartbreaking), and often kills the patient before the cancer itself does. If we can give treatment that halts or even just slows this process, it will give us more time to fight the cancer itself, and the body will be stronger and better able to fight.

[semillama]

1. Kick n/t

[Warpy]

2. A few oncology units I worked on already had an unofficial treatment

called an external stairway with an unlocked door where patients would disappear for 5 minutes and come back reeking of pot smoke. These were the patients who were more resistant to cachexia, although it was no guarantee that they would be immune.

It's been well known for a very long time that pot reverses anorexia in both cancer and AIDS patients. That it remains illegal is hideously cruel.

[dropkickpa]

3. True, the two are not necessarily the same

but it is damn shameful that something so simple and proven effective for anorexia is still illegal for medicinal use, especially when so many would get benefit. Wasting from anorexia or cachexia is such a terrible thing to watch someone go through.

[LeftishBrit]

4. It also makes chemo easier to tolerate for many people

I know a couple of people who may be alive today because they used pot (illegally, but police probably turned a blind eye) to reduce the side effects of chemo; otherwise they might have given up.

It really is cruel that it's made illegal for medical purposes; after all, morphine and heroin are prescribed when needed!