Erlotinib improves survival in lung cancer patients
Median and long-term survival is improved in patients with relapsed advanced non-small cell lung cancer who receive erlotinib (Tarceva), results from a phase III study suggest. Tarceva is being developed by a global alliance of Roche, OSI Pharmaceuticals and Genentech.
The study involved 731 patients with stage III or IV non-small cell lung
cancer who had experienced disease progression despite receiving first-
and second-line chemotherapy. Patients were randomised in a two to one
ratio to receive erlotinib 150mg per day orally or placebo. Median survival
was 6.7 months in the erlotinib group (n=488) and 4.7 months in the placebo
group (n=243). Hazard ratio was 0.71 for overall survival (P=0.001).
Overall response to erlotinib was 8.9 per cent with 1 per cent of patients
achieving a complete clinical response. In the erlotinib group, the researchers
also observed an increase in time to deterioration of lung cancer symptoms,
namely, cough, shortness of breath and pain, and a bigger proportion
of patients experienced an improvement in lung cancer symptoms. However,
76 per cent of patients in the active group experienced rash and 55 per
cent experienced diarrhoea.
Frances Shepherd, Scott Taylor chair in lung cancer research at the Princess
Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada, and lead author of the study, said: “This
is a landmark study, it is the first study of a single agent epidermal
growth factor receptor inhibitor to document a definite survival advantage
for this class of agent.”
Bruce Johnson, director of the Lowe centre for thoracic oncology at Dane-Farber
Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, commented: “We are anxious
to find out how this class of agents will be integrated into the treatment
of lung cancer ... having a study that shows a prolongation in survival
gives us incredible confidence to move forward and [give] it earlier
in the treatment.” |
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