Drug combination boosts survival rate in head, neck cancers.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Charles E. Buban

SUSTAINED RESEARCH OF drugs already in the market is proving beneficial as one drug approved for treatment of breast and lung cancer, is found to dramatically improve the survival of patients with advanced head and neck cancer.

Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School reported that adding the drug docetaxel (Taxotere) to the standard two-drug chemotherapy combination improved their patients chance of survival by 30 percent.

The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncologys annual meeting.

The result is very …