New Cancer Drugs Offer Patients Hope, Drug Makers Success; Some Medicines Prolong Life; That's one reason leading pharmaceutical firms see strong sales growth ahead.(HEALTH & MEDICINE)

Byline: GLORIA LAU

Until recently, cancer was considered hard to treat -- a disease few survived. Doctors even joked about oncologists having cardiology envy.

Heart disease patients, unlike people with cancer, have many proven options, including statins that stop plaque, angioplasty and bypass surgery. In contrast, most cancer patients don't get guarantees.

According to the American Cancer Society, cancer kills nearly 554,000 Americans and causes 30% of all deaths. But new drugs that target cancer cells while avoiding healthy cells are boosting chances of survival. Most of these drugs have regulatory approval to treat only tiny populations of patients with rare cancers, but they do offer hope.

The list of targeted drugs includes Novartis AG's Gleevec, Genentech Inc.'s Rituxan and AstraZeneca's PLC Iressa. These drugs target diseased cells without harming healthy cells -- something traditional chemotherapies can't do.

"Gleevec really stands out," said analyst Howard Liang of JMP Securities. "In terms of its impact on chronic myeloid leukemia patients, they're effectively cured. Sometimes you have a 90% response rate -- unheard of in other (cancer) drugs."

Targeted treatments not only help patients, they also drive the cancer drug business.