‘Smart tablet’ effective in cancers

Data presented at the recent 38th annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) showed that Xeloda (capecitabine), Roche’s new oral tumor-activated chemotherapy treatment, is highly effective at treating gastrointestinal cancers – colorectal, stomach and oesophageal.

Various study results presented at the ASCO meeting showed that the oral Xeloda has the potential to effectively replace the current standard treatment, intravenous (iv) 5-FU, in gastrointestinal cancers.

Xeloda has been dubbed as a "smart tablet" because of its novel mechanism of activation which occurs predominantly inside the cancer. It is activated by an enzyme, thymidine phosphorylase, which is found at higher levels in cancer than in healthy tissue.

Thus, Xeloda is converted to the cancer-killing agent 5-FU preferentially at the site of the cancer where it is needed.

With better tumor shrinkage than 5-FU, Xeloda monotherapy is already approved in most countries for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Studies presented at the ASCO meeting also showed Xeloda’s efficacy by itself in stomach cancer and also in chemotherapy combinations against gastrointestinal cancers.

Aside from being an effective cancer treatment, Xeloda dramatically reduces the burden of patients using the conventional iv 5-FU cancer treatment by lessening expensive hospital stays and painful injections.

The conventional iv treatment subjects patients to wear surgically implanted devices tunneled under the skin to deliver the drug. Chemotherapy is pumped through these devices day and night.