Tarceva-Gemzar combo prolongs life in cancer trial
Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:59 AM ET
NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A combination of cancer drug Tarceva and chemotherapy drug Gemzar increased survival rates of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who had not been previously treated, according to data from a clinical trial released on Thursday.
The addition of Tarceva, made by Genentech Inc. (DNA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OSIP.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to treatment with Gemzar, which is made by Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , increased survival by 41 percent in a trial of 569 patients conducted by the National Cancer Institute of Canada.
A summary of the data was released ahead of its presentation at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in Hollywood, Florida.
Patients received either Gemzar and Tarceva, or Gemzar plus a placebo. After one year, 24 percent of patients who received the two drugs were still alive, compared to 17 percent of those who received only Gemzar, a statistically significant benefit.
Tarceva, which was approved last November to treat the most common form of lung cancer, inhibits a protein known as the epidermal growth factor receptor, which is found on the surface of a variety of tumor cells and may help to control tumor growth.
"Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat and any advance could make a significant difference in the lives of people with this disease," Malcolm Moore, chair of the gastrointestinal clinical trials group at the National Cancer Institute, said in the summary of the data. |
