Clarification on Vitrakvi for cancer treatment

Citizen – Riyadh

The Ministry of Health said that a reference to what has recently been reported in the media and communication sites has shown that Vitrakvi is the commercial name of Larotrectinib.

The ministry said the drug was not completely treating or curing the original cancer, as indicated, but aimed to control its growth and spread for as long as possible and did not replace surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. .
The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study on larotrectinib treatment, in first and second stage, comprising 55 cancer patients with a genetic mutation in TRK, with a complete response rate of 13% and a partial response rate of 62%. This response did not last long in all patients, as the disease developed in some study participants and continued to respond in 39% of patients after the first year of treatment and some patients underwent postoperative surgery.

This new treatment has recently been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat specific cancer cases with a specific type of rare genetic mutations (TRK gene). This rare mutation is present in certain tumors such as the salivary gland, the thyroid, the lung and the connective tissue. Cases that contain a genetic mutation do not tolerate surgery, as well as those that contain a genetic mutation and there is no alternative appropriate to the treatment, nor cases that appear after the prescribed treatment.