This Oral Drug Could Slow Down Brain Tumour: What We Know

The experimental drug can slow down the progression of a brain tumour for up to 27 months, said the drug's developer

Brain cancer drug slows tumor progession considerably, finds study.

(Photo: iStock)

An experimental drug developed by French drug developer Servier, called 'Vorasidenib', can significantly slow down the progression of a brain tumour, said the company.

The targeted therapy drug called Vorasidenib showed noteworthy effects by delaying the progression of a brain tumour, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This means the drug can potentially prolong the progression-free period for a patient and extend the time taken to move to further anticancer interventions such as chemotherapy and radiation.

What the study found: The drug, Vorasidenib was able to delay the growth of grade-2 glioma, a deadly type of brain cancer, for as long as 27 months.

This was more than twice compared to the placebo arm which could delay the growth till 11.1 months.

This study included 331 patients who had gone through no prior treatment aside from surgery that were split into two groups of the drug and placebo arms.

Between the lines: Grade-2 gliomas are progressive brain tumours that are more commonly found in adults but can also develop in children or teenagers. The brain tumour is initially slow-growing or low-grade but has the tendency to progress to a higher grade with time.

What Next: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted fast-track designation to Vorasidenib in March 2023 with the company currently managing timelines for submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) for the drug to the FDA.