The patients with liver cancer live about 44 % longer when they were treated with sorafenib (Nexavar), when compared to those who received placebos, said a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. No drug had shown any success in extending the life of liver cancer patients before this study and its side effects were minor and included skin problems and diarrhea.

Lead author Josep Llovet, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer Group, Barcelona, Spain said, "This is the first time that we've had an effective systemic treatment for liver cancer. Our findings demonstrated survival advantages that are both statistically significant and clinically meaningful."

There are hopes that the drug, co-marketed by Bayer and Onyx, may show more benefits when combined with other drugs and may even reduce the recurrence of the disease in the patients who are detected with the disease in the early stages.

The main deterrent to the drug is the high price tag. Costing $ 5400 per month, it is seen as a high price to pay for the modest increase in the life span it gives. With more than half the annual deaths from this disease reported from China and the majority of the remainder in Sub Saharan Africa, the high price may be too much for most patients to afford.