WebMD News from HealthDay
March 10, 2015 -- A new drug to treat high-risk neuroblastoma has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Neuroblastoma is a type of cancer that most often occurs in children under age 5. Patients with high-risk neuroblastoma have only a 40 to 50 percent chance of long-term survival despite aggressive treatment.
The FDA approved the drug Unituxin (dinutuximab) as part of a combined treatment regimen -- including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy -- for patients who had at least a partial response to a previous combined treatment program.
"Unituxin marks the first approval for a therapy aimed specifically for the treatment of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma," Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in an agency news release.
"Unituxin fulfills a critical need by providing a treatment option that prolongs survival in children with high-risk neuroblastoma," he added.
source : New Drug OK'd for a Deadly Pediatric Cancer
