Three 'targeted' cancer drugs raise risk of fatal side effects

Treatment with three relatively new ‘targeted’ cancer drugs has been linked to a slightly elevated chance of fatal side effects, according to a new analysis led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The risk remains low, but should be taken into account by physicians and patients. The incidence of fatal complications was 1.5 percent in patients who received any of the three drugs, which block the vascular endothelial growth factor receptors in cancer cells. This is compared to a 0.7 percent incidence in patients given standard treatments or placebos.The study looked at three drugs: sorafenib (Nexavar), sunitinib (Sutent) and pazopanib (Votrient). Sorafenib is approved to treat kidney and liver cancer, sunitinib to treat kidney cancer and gastrointestinal stromal tumor and pazopanib to treat kidney cancer.