By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

STOCKHOLM — Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had a 50% reduction in the progression hazard with a three-drug first-line chemotherapy regimen followed by a two-drug maintenance regimen, results of an international study showed.

Patients had a median progression-free survival of 10.2 months when treated with cisplatin, pemetrexed (Alimta), and bevacizumab (Avastin), followed by maintenance therapy with pemetrexed and bevacizumab.

Those who received the same upfront therapy and maintenance with bevacizumab alone had a median progression-free survival of 6.6 months, Fabrice Barlesi, MD, reported here at the European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress, formerly the Congress of the European Cancer Organization and European Society for Medical Oncology.