Did Vatalanib Work for Patrick Swayze?
February 18, 2009 at 5:06 pm EST | Tags: Celebrities & Entertainment, Clinical Trials, Gossip & RumorsHere’s something we noticed: Patrick Swayze has been looking a lot better lately. Swayze has recently reported that his oncologists had put him on Vatalanib in an effort to treat his pancreatic cancer.
Vatalanib has quite a lengthy story. To get to the gist, the drug was discovered by Novartis back in the 90’s (then called Ciba-Geigy) and was designed to be a treatment for colorectal cancer. The drug went as far as Phase 3 (CONFIRM-1 and CONFIRM-2 trials) before results failed to show any benefit in overall survival. The drug had high hopes and was meant to compete with Genentech’s Avastin.
Luckily, Novartis had managed to generate preliminary data in other cancer types and is currently conducting studies in meningioma, neuroendocrine tumors and, you guessed it, pancreatic cancer.
Take a look at Swayze below in Fall 2008:
And Swayze in Feb 09:
His cheeks look a bit fuller, no? But hey wtf!!!?? He’s smoking! Dude, not cool. NVS is trying to help your ass, man. Drop the tobacco. Not cool Swayze, not cool at all.
Anyway, our question is why Vatalanib? We did some research and dug up about 8 compounds in development for advanced pancreatic cancer:
Larotaxel (Sanofi-Aventis)
Apricoxib (Tragara Pharmaceuticals)
MK-0646 (Merck)
PX-12 (ProlX Pharmaceuticals)
CP-675,206 (Pfizer)
Masitinib (AB Science)
KU-0059436 (AstraZeneca, KuDOS Pharmaceuticals)
DTA-H19 (BioCancell Therapeutics)
I guess Novartis gets roys on the book deal.
Images from brittanybritches.com, celebuzz.com and wikipedia
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From public statements it seems pretty clear Swayze is no longer taking Vatalanib. The Stanford Clinical trial he was on for Vatalanib was restricted to Vatalanib/Gemcitabine combination. In the Barbara Walters interview he mentioned that he was switching the type of chemo he was on, and that it led to cold sensitivity. If he changed chemo treatments, he was off the clinical trial and no longer taking Vatalanib.
Sadly, it is doubtful that there was any chance of success. As you mention, Vatalanib is in the same class of drug as Pfizer’s axitinib. From Wikipedia, both are “small molecule protein kinase inhibitor that inhibits angiogenesis.” In phase I/II trials axitinib showed promise for pancreatic cancer, but the Phase III trial was stopped when it showed no improvement. See http://www.efluxmedia.com/newsPfizerStopstheDevelopmentofPancreaticDrug34224.html for details on axitinib.
Perhaps an anti-angiogenesis drug in the future will help slow pancreatic cancer. But early results aren’t encouraging.
Can’t he smoke?, Common dude, Everybody does with life whatever they want, who are you to condemn his smoke habit?. Now he has pancreatic cancer, he is dying slowly and you have the nuts to point your finger at him, you have no right!.
My good!.
As for the smoking, a recent quote stated that the “smokes” were helping him with the pain. I don’t believe that it is tobacco in those smokes. That has probably helped with some weight gain as well.
Sadly, he will die soon anyway, what’s the point in stopping now? He probably smoked all his life till now. He doesn’t have time to get another cancer anyway. Sadly, but isn’t it the true?
that’s not a tobacco cigarette. that’s a chemo patient’s best friend.
“Drop the tobacco. Not cool Swayze, not cool at all” — Cool is the last thing he hopes to be right now. I heard him say in a recent interview that smoking (yes, real cigarettes) does not affect this particular cancer or treatment. Why would someone want to judge a person who is indulging in probably his only comfort “crutch”. Walk in his shoes and maybe then you have the right to criticize..
the second photo is not recent!!! too bad for this site!!shame on you!!
wdag, who is Kaycee to comment on smoking? One of the too common millions that think their self righteous opinions needs to be heard when it is not welcome. Kaycee is a not cool, not cool, not cool hole.
Patric is still one of my most favorite actors of all time.If he does die,he will be truely missed .I’m still praying for a miracle.Hopefully God will let him live.If Patric has always smoked, so what, I’m sure he doesn’t care less if it looks cool or not.Thats probably the last thing on his mind.Well anyways Patric if you see this,I love you and always will, you are a wonderful actor, I pray that you will get better soon.Don’t ever give up. From one of your biggest fans.
Patrick, ojalá que te curés.!!! Vos sos una leyenda, un fenómeno!!!
One smoking don’t help with gaining weight cause it makes you not want to eat. Two he should stop smoking cause hes waisting the doctors time by not helping himself with the cancer. Three it may not effect the treatments now but he has been smoking for a while and that can lead to other diseases and cancers which can complicate his treatments.
I predict that Swayze will live a long and healthy life.