Comments on: Did Vatalanib Work for Patrick Swayze?

By: genius

genius — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:40:49 +0000

I predict that Swayze will live a long and healthy life.

By: Idk

Idk — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:38:51 +0000

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.

By: Jack

Jack — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:04:22 +0000

Patrick, ojalá que te curés.!!! Vos sos una leyenda, un fenómeno!!!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:29:03 +0000

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.

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:04:15 +0000

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.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:05:18 +0000

the second photo is not recent!!! too bad for this site!!shame on you!!

By: Kaycee

Kaycee — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:03:36 +0000

“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..

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:48:43 +0000

that’s not a tobacco cigarette. that’s a chemo patient’s best friend.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:09:29 +0000

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?

By: sbro

sbro — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:46:08 +0000

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.

By: wdag

wdag — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:18:56 +0000

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!.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:29:42 +0000

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.