On the other hand, some on Wall Street worry that availability of a gene test to predict response might limit the market for Iressa and Tarceva to only a small minority of lung cancer patients whose tumors have the gene mutations.
But patent attorney Gene Quinn outright accuses me of lying in his response to my recent piece on how the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals wrecked the patent system.
In the trial, which included 55 patients, tumors dramatically shrank in 9 of 16 very advanced patients with the gene mutation who got high doses--a better response rate than doctors have remembered seeing in a trial for advanced melanoma.
In one trial of 290 patients who were given Glivec for at least six months, 56% enjoyed a powerful response: The drug destroyed most or all of the marrow cells with the defective gene.