The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7252 p785
7 June 2003

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Meeting summaries  7 June

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Survival benefit for lung cancer patients given adjuvant therapy

Chemotherapy after lung cancer surgery improves patient survival, data from two studies presented at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting reveal. "[The studies] challenge current treatment standards for lung cancer patients," said Dr Bruce Johnson, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.

The first study, presented by Dr Thierry Le Chevalier, Gustave Roussy Institute, Villejuif, France, showed that five years after treatment, disease-free survival was 39.4 per cent among patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy compared with 34.3 per cent for patients who underwent surgery alone. There was also an absolute difference of 4.1 per cent for overall survival at five years in favour of patients in the adjuvant chemotherapy group (40.4 per cent compared with 44.5 per cent, P<0.03).

The study involved 1,867 patients. Patients in the chemotherapy group were treated with cisplatin combined with etoposide, vinorelbine, vinblastine or vindesine. Dr Le Chevalier explained that data analysis did not reveal any subgroup of patients more likely to benefit from treatment but added that the overall benefit seen was enough for this adjuvant treatment to be considered for the whole patient population.

The second study, involving 979 patients with adenocarcinoma of the lung, showed that patients treated with tegafur with uracil (Uftoral) after surgery survive longer than patients who underwent surgery alone. Survival differences were most pronounced among patients with larger tumours that had not spread to surrounding lymph nodes.

"[The study] is likely to improve the standard of care in patients with stage I lung adenocarcinoma," said Dr Masahiro Tsuboi, Tokyo medical university, who presented the results.

The Journal attended the 39th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held in Chicago, Illinois, from 31 May until 3 June, courtesy of Eli Lilly. Our report continues next week