Till now we haVe a specific anti cancer drug for each type of cancer but a new drug "Larotrectnib: works on Gene of multiple  cancers of adult and paediatric group,in children it is affecting 93% of cancers.If larotrectinib receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it will represent the first time a drug is initially approved because it targets a specific molecular change independent of tumor type. Larotrectinib’s maker, Loxo Oncology, is also one of the first to develop a cancer drug, almost in parallel, in adults and children.

             Dr. Doug Hawkins, division chief of Hematology and Oncology at Seattle Children’s, remembers matching one of the first pediatric cancer patients to an experimental drug that targets a specific set of genetic alterations associated with soft tissue tumors. The drug, larotrectinib, is designed to selectively stop the resulting abnormal tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) fusion proteins from promoting cancer cell growth.

          Loxo Oncology realized the value the drug provided to pediatric patients at the outset, especially those with infantile fibrosarcoma, a cancer that usually occurs at or shortly after birth. Because virtually all infantile fibrosarcomas have the genetic change larotrectinib treats, the company took several steps to make the drug accessible to pediatric patients at the outset.First, they developed a liquid formulation of the drug because many children dislike or cannot swallow pills. Second, they established a sophisticated way to measure the amount of the drug in a patient’s body to get the dosing levels right for children. 

If larotrectinib receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it will represent the first time a drug is initially approved because it targets a specific molecular change independent of tumor type. Larotrectinib’s maker, Loxo Oncology, is also one of the first to develop a cancer drug, almost in parallel, in adults and children.

Loxo Oncology realized the value the drug provided to pediatric patients at the outset, especially those with infantile fibrosarcoma, a cancer that usually occurs at or shortly after birth. Because virtually all infantile fibrosarcomas have the genetic change larotrectinib treats, the company took several steps to make the drug accessible to pediatric patients at the outset.

           First, they developed a liquid formulation of the drug because many children dislike or cannot swallow pills. Second, they established a sophisticated way to measure the amount of the drug in a patient’s body to get the dosing levels right for children. Finally, they worked closely with pediatric cancer research groups across the country to ensure patients could get access to the drug.

           A paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine documents the drug’s effectiveness in treating TRK fusion-positive cancers regardless of patient age or tumor type. The paper includes data from 55 patients, ages 4 months to 76 years and representing 17 different TRK fusion-positive tumor types, treated with larotrectinib. Overall, 75% of patients responded to the treatment and at one year, 71% experienced no disease progression since starting treatment.

                     According to Hawkins, a co-author on the paper led by investigators from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, these results provide compelling proof that larotrectinib is incredibly effective and is likely to produce long-lived responses in patients if they have the right target.