Content about Imatinib

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug made by Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals for treating tumors of the digestive system, the agency said Monday.

The FDA announced the approval of Stivarga (regorafenib) for gastrointestinal stromal tumors that could not be removed through surgery or had spread to other parts of the body and were no longer responding to treatment with Novartis' Gleevec (imatinib) or Pfizer's Sutent (sunitinib).

WAYNE, N.J. — An experimental drug made by Bayer HealthCare extended the length of time that patients with gastrointestinal tumors survived without their disease getting worse, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial released Monday.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug made by Novartis that is designed to prevent tumors in the gastrointestinal tract from recurring after surgical removal, the agency said.

The FDA approved Novartis' Gleevec (imatinib) for adults who have had gastrointestinal stromal tumors, or GIST, removed. The drug was specifically approved for people whose tumors are known as CD117-positive, which includes 95% of all GIST tumors.

The drug was originally approved in 2001 for a type of leukemia.

NEW YORK — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a Pfizer drug for treating pancreatic tumors.

Pfizer announced Friday the approval of Sutent (sunitinib malate) for the treatment of progressive, well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in patients with locally advanced disease that can’t be removed through surgery. Pancreatic NET is a rare cancer reported in 2 million to 4 million people worldwide every year.