Stockholm—Progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) improved by almost 50% when pemetrexed was added to maintenance therapy with bevacizumab, according to an interim analysis of the AVAPERL trial.

At the recent European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress, researchers reported that median PFS increased from 6.6 months in patients receiving bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech) alone to 10.2 months when pemetrexed (Alimta, Eli Lilly) was added (abstract LBA34). When evaluated from the end of induction therapy, PFS was doubled with the combination compared with bevacizumab monotherapy.

“This is a benefit of unprecedented magnitude,” said Fabrice Barlesi, MD, a thoracic oncologist at the University of the Mediterranean in Marseille, France, who presented the data. “Overall survival [OS] data favor maintenance therapy with bevacizumab and pemetrexed, but the data are currently immature. The results strongly favor the use of bevacizumab plus pemetrexed as continuation maintenance therapy in patients with [biologically] nonselected metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.”

“A high proportion of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with erlotinib or gefitinib develop the gatekeeper EGFR T790M mutation. Identifying this mutation with our test will support development of promising next-generation EGFR-targeted therapies critical to overcoming resistance,” commented Stephane Wong, Chief Scientific Officer of MolecularMD.

The new U.S. Patent, No. 8,067,175, describes methods of detecting the EGFR T790M mutation as it relates to acquired resistance in patients harboring activating EGFR mutations. Monitoring for the emergence of the EGFR T790M mutation will allow for early identification of acquired resistance and prompt treatment intervention.

TUSTIN, CA, Dec 06, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PPHM +30.03% today announced preliminary results from a randomized Phase II trial showing a 50% improvement in overall tumor response rates (ORR) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Patients treated with bavituximab plus carboplatin and paclitaxel currently demonstrate an ORR of 39%, versus 26% in patients treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel alone. This preliminary analysis using RECIST guidelines included all 86 front-line, Stage IV NSCLC patients randomized in this Phase II trial.

Peregrine plans to report on secondary endpoints, including median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) once reached during 2012. Bavituximab’s therapeutic potential is being evaluated in three randomized Phase II trials in front-line NSCLC, second-line NSCLC, and front-line pancreatic cancer, as well as in four investigator-sponsored trials (ISTs) in additional oncology indications with clinical data from each study expected in 2012.

Report from leading oncologists’ group finds strides were made against tough-to-treat tumors

TUESDAY, Dec. 6 (HealthDay News) — As the war against cancer continues, a group representing U.S. oncologists has picked its “Top Five” list of advances in cancer care for 2011.

Leading the list are approvals for a bevy of new, targeted drugs for tough-to-treat malignancies, plus promising results suggesting CT chest scans may be an early-detection screen for lung cancer.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) this week issued its annual report on progress against cancer. The report was published online Dec. 5 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

“The big news has been targeted drug therapy,” noted Dr. Nicholas Vogelzang, head of the section of genitourinary cancer at the Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas and co-executive editor of the report.

“We now have drugs that are very selective for some solid tumors. We now have [new] drugs affecting melanoma and lung cancer, which is pretty sweet,” he said. “We don’t know how long the responses to these drugs last — they appear to be pretty short — but some of them are truly dramatic.”

CT-based lung cancer screening was the other big news in the cancer field this past year, Vogelzang noted. “People who smoke have a huge increase in lung cancer — 40 times that of the general population. If you stop the risk drops, but it never goes back to zero.”

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) — Accuracy of small lung cancer detection on chest radiographs is higher when using bone suppression (BS) imaging with a standard radiograph, and the accuracy improves when using dual-energy subtraction (DES) radiography, according to a study published in the December issue of Radiology.

Scientists and researchers in Chile are working to develop technology that could help diagnose lung cancer at an earlier stage. The new technology will seek to identify genes that indicate a predisposition to certain cancers.

Lung cancer is the second deadliest cancer in Chile. Only 16-17 percent of people diagnosed with lung cancer in Chile live longer than five years. Every year 500 people die from the illness and almost 1,900 more are diagnosed.

The research is being conducted in a joint effort between the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BCCA) based in Canada, the Center of Technology for Cancer (CeTeCancer) and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, which is part of the Universidad de Chile.

When cancer cells are first discovered, many drugs can blast them into oblivion. But over time, cancers begin to withstand those first line drugs and continue to grow and spread.

“If you already have 1010 tumor cells, the chances are you’re going to have some kind of resistance develop,” said William Pao, a physician scientist at Vanderbilt University, who first uncovered mechanisms of drug resistance in lung cancer. “Even if you kill 99.9 percent of cells you’re still left with a ton of cells which then can start to grow.”

A long-standing hurdle in cancer therapy, researchers are now making inroads into understanding how cancer cells acquire drug resistance, and they’re finding that genetic mutations are just one of many strategies cancers use to evade death. Cancer cells have been found to boost transcription of survival genes, drill out the cores of transport proteins, or even employ alternate protein configurations to avoid extinction. While researchers are learning to apply the findings to overcome specific types of drug resistance, it’s quickly becoming clear that there is no single pathway tumors use to avoid cancer drugs, and that the problem of cancer resistance is far from over.

Nov. 28, 2011 (Chicago) — Researchers are using high-energy waves similar to those used to make microwave popcorn to destroy inoperable lung tumors.

In a preliminary study, the technique, called microwave ablation, eliminated lung tumors in 19 of 28 patients. Eight months later, none of the tumors had come back.

Tumors shrank or stopped growing in the other nine patients, says study researcher Claudio Pusceddu, MD, a specialist in radiation and oncology at Oncological Hospital in Cagliari, Italy.

During microwave ablation, radiologists place a thin microwave antenna directly into the tumor. An electromagnetic wave then agitates water molecules in the surrounding tumor tissue, producing friction and heat that eventually destroy the tumor.

“We are honored to be named the Arizona Start-Up Company Innovator of the Year,” commented Alan Nelson, PhD, chairman and CEO of VisionGate. “We believe that the scientific and corporate advances we achieved over the past year provide a solid foundation for the accelerated development of the Cell-CT technology and LuCED test now underway. By combining the high accuracy and cost effectiveness of our non-invasive LuCED diagnostic with the proven ability of CT screening to reduce lung cancer deaths, we hope to make mass screening feasible and affordable.”