A new drug developed by scientists at Pfizer, can prove to work wonders in shrinking of tumors in lung cancer patients, according to a new study.

The drug so-developed is called as crizotinib, by Pfizer, has come up with results that causes an effective reduction in lung cancer tumors in some patients during Phase I and II clinical trials.

It was further seen that Phase I/II clinical trials demonstrated a decrease in 57 percent of patients’ tumors that were brought down in just eight weeks of the treatment, 87 percent showed disease stabilization.

Lyudmila Bazhenova, MD, assistant clinical professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a member of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center in lieu of this matter stated: “The Phase III clinical trials will be critical in determining if this drug goes to market.”

She further added that in case of some patients who have non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), fusion of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene and EML4 gene helps advance lung cancer cell growth, especially if they have adenocarcinoma subtype of lung cancer.

Crizotinib on the other hand stops the enzyme, allowing the cancer cells to die off.