LungBlog

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals has initiated patient screening and dosing in a Phase II trial designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of bavituximab in combination with chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

French biotech company Transgene said the primary endpoint has been achieved in a Phase IIb trial evaluating its therapeutic vaccine TG4010 (MVA-MUC1-IL2) as an adjunct to first line chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The cancer drug Erbitux prolonged the lives of patients with advanced lung cancer by five weeks, according to a new clinical study described as an important gain for such individuals.”Patients with advanced NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) have limited treatment options and life expectancy is short, so the survival increase shown in this study is an important step for these patients,” said Robert Pirker of the Medical University of Vienna, a lead investigator in the study.

Lung cancer patients typically have a 30 percent chance of living a year and a one to two percent chance of surviving five years, Pirker explained Sunday at the 44th annual conference of the American College of Clinical Oncology.

A Randomized, Discontinuation Phase 2 Study of Sorafenib vs. Placebo in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Who Have Failed at Least Two Prior Chemotherapy Regimens

Preliminary findings from this randomized discontinuation Phase 2 study showed that treatment with Nexavar yielded encouraging results in heavily pre-treated patients with NSCLC. The study showed that patients who remained on Nexavar experienced a longer period of disease control and disease stabilization than patients who discontinued Nexavar after the initial run-in phase of treatment. In the study, the most common treatment-emergent adverse events included fatigue, hand/foot syndrome and skin rash.

Two Phase II studies demonstrated potential for pazopanib as a single agent treatment for early stage non-small cell lung cancer and advanced renal cell cancer

New data presented by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today highlighted the potential of its investigational MAGE-A3 Antigen-Specific Cancer Immunotherapeutic (ASCI) through results of three studies evaluating highly targeted immunotherapy as a treatment for metastatic melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These data were presented at the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract Nos: 9065(1), 9045(2) and 7501(3)).

By wrapping tumor-suppressing genes in tiny balls of fat, Roth and colleagues hope to be able to treat more invasive cancers. While p53 nanoparticles are still in preclinical development, those that deliver another tumor-suppressor called FUS1 are in a phase I clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer. Through 19 patients, the dose escalation study has yet to encounter significant side effects.

The goal of developing reliable genetic tests to guide lung cancer treatment has taken a step forward. Researchers at Columbia University recently evaluated the ability of five high-risk genetic profiles, or signatures, to predict the likelihood that cancer would recur in patients whose non-small cell lung cancer was caught early and surgically removed.

Ahead of the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago at the end of month, Eli Lilly has presented data showing that treatment with the firm’s Alimta given as a maintenance therapy after chemotherapy increases the survival prospects of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

A panel of 15 genes may help determine which patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer will experience a recurrence and, therefore, benefit the most from chemotherapy, a new study shows.