New cancer pill shows promise; many doctors say too early to tell

(FOX 9) - It's being touted as a "cancer-killing pill," with some scientists excited that they may have found the "holy grail" of cancer treatments. However, many oncologists are urging caution, as the drug continues to go through clinical trials.

Researchers at the City of Hope say they’ve developed targeted chemotherapy that appears to kill all solid tumors in pre-clinical research. The treatment was effective in treating breast, prostate, brain, ovarian, skin, cervical, and lung cancers.

"It could be a game changer for people," said breast cancer survivor Mary Jo Nye of Minneapolis. "Maybe I would have been able to take it and I wouldn’t have needed a double mastectomy."

The director of research at Minnesota Oncology Dr. Tim Larson says while he is hopeful, he doesn’t want patients to get their hopes up.

"Harm can occur if we tout success before we’ve really achieved that," said Larson. "A lot of things look good in the lab. We’ve cured a lot of mice with cancer. But some of these same cures - when it came time to test in humans - they didn’t result in the same success."

The treatment uses a molecule to target a protein critical to the replication of cancer cells.

Nye, who volunteers as a mentor at Firefly Sisterhood, says with demand at the organization up 30 percent in the last year, she knows the extreme need for more treatment options. And while she too believes it's too early to know if it will work, she’s hopeful.

"I think it's another tool in the toolkit for doctors to use," said Nye.