Cancer Drug Kills Four Times More than No Treatment at All

[Guest guest]

Cancer Drug Kills Four Times More than No Treatment at All

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/06/pfizer-pulls-leuke\

mia-drug-from-us-market.aspx

Drugmaker Pfizer is pulling Mylotarg, a decade-old leukemia medicine, off the

U.S. market after a study found a higher death rate and no benefit for patients.

Mylotarg won approval under an abbreviated process. Medicines cleared in that

way have to pass follow-up tests to confirm they work.  The FDA asked Pfizer to

withdraw the drug after a recent clinical trial raised concerns about the

product's safety and clinical benefits.

Reuters reports:

" The trial ... showed more deaths in the first couple months of treatment. The

fatality rate was 5.7 percent for Mylotarg patients, compared with 1.4 percent

without the drug, Pfizer said. Mylotarg is the first drug approved under the

FDA's abbreviated process to be withdrawn for failing to show effectiveness,

agency officials said. "