A new drug for liver cancer

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Nexavar (sorafenib) to treat a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma when surgery isn't possible. The FDA had already approved it in 2005 for advanced kidney cancer.

In a randomised clinical trial, patients who took Nexavar lived nearly three months longer on average than those who didn't, and their disease progressed more slowly than in patients given a placebo. "This drug is a new treatment option for patients facing this very difficult type of cancer," said Robert Justice of the FDA.

Hepatocellular carcinoma makes up 80–90% of liver cancers, according to the US National Library of Medicine. It is hard to remove completely by surgery, and if it isn't fully removed, patients usually die within 3 to 6 months.

Nexavar is a kinase inhibitor: it interferes with the signals that drive cancer cells to grow, acts on the blood vessels that feed the tumour, and affects cell death.