In a study of 33 patients reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, Genentech"s experimental drug GDC-0449 has been shown to decrease tumor size in 18 of the patients with advanced stages of basal cell carcinoma. The molecule, nicknamed hedgehog that is normally turned off after childhood and that promotes cancer cell growth if it isn"t turned off, is affected by the drug and according to investigators could potentially treat cancers that are particularly dependent on the Hedgehog pathway. The pathway is also implicated in colon and ovarian cancers. In phase I trials there have been only a few adverse effects with a 50 percent response rate in 18 patients with metastatic disease.
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