Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. France is the first country in the world outside Japan to make this drug available to patients. A large French clinical trial showed Campto has significant anti-tumor activity in these difficult to treat patients.
Colorectal cancer is the second most prevalent cancer in the western world.
While about 50 percent of patients are cured by surgery, the other half become metastatic and require treatment with an anti-cancer drug. For 40 years, 5-FU has been the only effective agent in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer with about 10 to 25 percent of patients experiencing a clinical response. Campto is certainly an advance in the treatment of colorectal cancer and we are excited to continue our studies of the drug to determine its role either alone or in combination with 5-FU or with other promising agents in development. I, an enzyme essential for cell division. Inhibition of this enzyme's activity kills cancer cells.