Cancer Medicine Studied at Norton Cancer Institute approved by FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new kidney cancer medicine studied at Norton Cancer Institute and other centers, officials announced today.

Afinitor is the first approved, once-daily oral therapy that targets mTOR, a protein inside the cancer cell that controls tumor cell division and blood vessel growth. It is approved for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma after failure of certain other treatments.

Norton Cancer Institute was one of several clinical trial sites evaluating Afinitor, which is manufactured by Novartis International AG of Switzerland, according to the FDA.

“This is one of the exciting new drugs that targets tumors more directly and with less toxicity than conventional treatments,” said Dr. John Hamm, director of research at Norton Cancer Institute. “It is administered as a daily pill patients can take at home.”