Lung Cancer - Lung Cancer Treatments

Significant Survival Benefit for Drug Tarceva in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
Study shows a significant improvement in overall survival for patients given Tarceva combined with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone.

Roche, Genentech, Inc. and OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced positive results from a phase III study of investigational drug Tarceva (erlotinib) in locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer patients. The study met its primary endpoint of improving overall survival.
www.medicalnewstoday.com

New Drug Prolongs Lung Cancer Survival
"Survival was prolonged two months on average. For the one-third in the treatment group that lived more than a year, it was another year of good life. Fifteen percent in the treatment group lived longer than two years, compared to none in the placebo group," said Shepherd.

In terms of response, patients with adenocarcinoma, women, Asians and lifetime nonsmokers had better response rates to erlotinib. Also, those who had more than 10 percent of tumor cells expressing EGFR had better than average response rates to the drug. But, in terms of survival, only lifetime nonsmokers had a significant benefit over other groups, the study found.

"Patients who never smoked derived greater benefit from the treatment. They did 60 percent better [in survival] than patients treated with placebo," said Shepherd.
health.yahoo.com