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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Icebrg who wrote (8553)	5/31/2003 2:42:57 PM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

Erbitux May Have Effect in Lung Cancer says Reuter. I wonder if the keyword is "may" or "effect"? We might get some ideas when the companies involved issue their press releases. Meanwhile Reuters claim some degree of success for Erbitux. Preliminary data in 61 patients showed that 53 percent of patients treated with Erbitux and the chemotherapies cisplatin and vinorelbine saw their tumors shrink, compared with 32 percent of patients who had chemotherapy alone. Somewhat murky. It would be interesting to know what survival data looked like. Because survival was the point where AstraZeneca's Iressa failed to impress in similar but much larger trials (INTACT 1 and 2). (Although we know by now that an average can be full of disinformation). But here at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference, investigators presented resoundingly negative results from INTACT1 and INTACT2, trials that combined Iressa with the two chemotherapy regimens most commonly used in non-small cell lung cancer--gemcitabine plus cisplatin, and paclitaxel plus carboplatin. The outline of the results had previously been disclosed by the company, around the time it filed for regulatory approval of the drug in the US. As INTACT 2 investigator Dr. David Johnson from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told reporters, these trials showed no statistical difference in survival, response rates or time to worsening of symptoms for the patients. The trials each included around 1000 treatment-nave patients with stage III/IV disease randomised to either chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy plus Iressa 250 mg or 500 mg per day. In INTACT 1, median survival was 11.1 months for the placebo arm, 9.9 months for Iressa 250 mg, and 9.9 months for Iressa 500 mg. In INTACT 2, median survival was 9.9 months, 9.8 months, and 8.7 months respectively. The researchers are not sure why the clinical results were so disappointing after earlier trials and preclinical data had looked so promising. A discussion of the relative merits of mAb- resp. small molecule -based EGFr-bound cancer agents can be found at: PeerView Press inBrief Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor: Current Status of Targeted Therapy Based on interviews with key opinion leaders from the 2002 ASCO Molecular Therapeutics Symposium December 2002 ww3.peerviewpress.com Not too technical and well worth a visit in preparation for the wave of press releases claiming success, that we may expect to be coming out of Chicago over the next couple of days. For those who prefer the technical approach there is Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets 2003, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 215 - 234 Tyrosine kinases as targets in cancer therapy - successes and failures zerlina.ashley-pub.com For some reason the full article is available on-line. Erik