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Zactima, Alimta, Tarceva Cancer Pills Work To Slow Tumor Progression
May 30, 2009 2:04 p.m. EST
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Mayur Pahilajani - AHN News Writer
New York, NY (AHN) - Zactima by AstraZeneca Plc (NYSE: AZN), Alimta by Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) and Tarceva, sold in the U.S. by Roche's (RHHBY) Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals (NasdaqGS: OSIP), have been found to have slowed the progression of cancer in the patients after initial chemotherapy, but before new tumor growth.
Zactima, which failed two earlier trials, along with chemotherapy was found effective in reducing the size of tumors, making it the first pill to work with the chemotherapy in patients with advanced lung cancer.
The drug was able to increase the length of time a patient lives without their cancer growing to 17.3 weeks, from 14 weeks added by chemotherapy.
Over 1.35 million new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed every year and nearly 1.2 million people die as a result of this disease, which is more than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined. Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for around 85 percent of all lung cancers, the drugmaker said.
The drugmaker, which will seek approval to market it in the U.S. by the end of the month, carried out a trial called ZODIAC that studied over 1,390 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
"There are more deaths from lung cancer alone than from breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined - and it's extremely difficult to treat," principal investigator at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Dr. Roy Herbst said in a statement Saturday.
He added, "The ZODIAC study showed adding vandetanib to chemotherapy improved progression-free survival, in patients who have few, if any options for treatment."
In a separate study, Alimta was given to the patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) during maintenance therapy (treatment given after chemotherapy to keep the cancer from growing and spreading).
The patients lived three to five months longer than patients who did not receive the drug, confirming the benefits of maintenance therapy for patients with the nonsquamous type of NSCLC, according to the new study.
"This study will change the standard of care," deputy director of the Penn State Cancer Institute and lead author of the study Dr. Chandra P. Belani said in a statement.
She added, "Maintenance therapy with pemetrexed provides a new option for patients who have advanced lung cancer, because it has a low risk of side effects and can be given for a longer time to extend patients' lives."
Alimta is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) for the initial treatment of advanced nonsquamous NSCLC in combination with the drug cisplatin and as a single treatment for patients whose cancer has returned.
The third study Atlas, involving 1,160 patients, revealed that Tarceva, a drug meant to block a protein involved in tumor growth, extends the time patients live without their disease getting worse to 4.8 months.
This is more than the 3.7 months extension with Avastin drug during maintenance therapy alone. Tarceva was given after the patients were treated with four cycles of Avastin in combination with chemotherapy regimens.
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