Doctors find drug that helps prolong life by up to eight years.
Patients suffering from hard-to-treat blood cancer multiple myeloma may now live twice as long as before.

Doctors at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) found that a new drug, when given early, helps to prolong their life by up to eight years.

The drug, called bortezomib, was previously used for cancer patients who suffered a relapse. In 2006, doctors started to give the drug as a frontline treatment when the patients were first diagnosed.

The treatment, now the standard of care here, may well pave the way for the cancer to be treated less like a terminal disease, and more like a chronic one, said lead investigator Daryl Tan, a consultant haematologist at SGH.

Bortezomib, made by US-based Millenium Pharmaceuticals, causes cancer cells to die by preventing them from “throwing their trash out”, sad Dr Tan.

“Every cell – including cancer cells – has a dustbin, where used substances  such as proteins are discarded” he said.

The drug acts as “a lid on the dustbin”, he said. This causes the junk materials to accumulate inside the cell, which will eventually die from it.

Article extract from The Straits Times 15 Oct 2011