Finally, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has given a green signal to Novartis AG's cancer drug Afinitor for a rare type of pancreatic cancer which currently has very few treatment options.

In an official statement, the Swiss drug maker said, “Data show Afinitor delays tumor growth and reduces risk of disease progression in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NET) of pancreatic origin. This marks the first approval of a treatment for this patient population in the United States in nearly 30 years”.

Though many experts raised concern regarding the serious negative side effects of the drug but despite of all this, a U. S. advisory panel voted unanimously in favor of the drug's use in treating patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

This drug already has the approval to treat the patients with kidney cancer and a latest estimate suggests that it will generate revenue of $1.3 billion in 2015.

Novartis confirmed about submitting applications for Afinitor use for pancreatic cancer to the European Medicines Agency and the Swiss regulator after it was questioned by FDA regarding the benefits of the drug.

Experts suggest that it’s very rare to have pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors as they have a strike rate of about 0.32 cases per 100,000 people and it grows really slow in comparison to other pancreatic cancers.