In Trials, Drugs Show Promise Against Kidney Cancer

[Syrinx]

ORLANDO, Fla., May 15 - New drugs are offering new hope to people
with kidney cancer, which until now has mostly defied treatment,
doctors said here over the weekend.

"We've reached the point in the illness where the door is open, so to
speak," said Dr. Ronald M. Bukowski, a kidney cancer specialist at the
Cleveland Clinic.

There are two drugs racing to get through that door, one developed by
Pfizer and the other by Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals.

Results of clinical trials, announced this weekend at the annual
meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, suggest that
both drugs should eventually win approval, kidney cancer specialists
and analysts said. And while the data on the two drugs are not
directly comparable, the Pfizer drug appears to be more powerful but
also more toxic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/business/16drug.html