LungBlog

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.

New products and combination therapies. IMS expects future growth to be bolstered by the introduction of 25 to 30 new chemical entities between 2008 and 2012, helping to sustain the trend of an expanding patient population treated with targeted therapies. While many of these new therapies will treat the most prevalent tumor types — breast and non-small cell lung cancer — several new drugs in late-stage development will target prostate and pancreatic cancer as well as melanoma.

Eli Lilly’s Alimta slowed the spread of non-small cell lung cancer in patients with advanced disease. It’s already approved for use in patients who have failed chemotherapy; this study suggests it may be added to treatment earlier in the course of disease.

A decade after the first genetic medication for cancer, trastuzumab, became available, the era of personalised medicine has finally arrived. Trastuzumab, an antibody drug marketed as Herceptin, was aimed at up to one in three breast cancer patients who produced too much of the protein HER-2/neu, which leads to ferocious tumour growth. More recently it has been discovered that when the deadliest form of lung cancer - non-small-cell cancer - occurs in patients who are female or Asian or who have never smoked, it is often due to a growth factor mutation: enter the drugs gefitinib, marketed as Iressa, and erlotinib, sold as Tarceva, designed to hit these genetic targets.

AstraZeneca plc, the UK’s second-biggest drugmaker, has submitted a marketing application to the European authorities for its oral anti-cancer drug gefitinib as a treatment for locally advanced pre-treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSLC).

In a phase 2 trial of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, an immunotherapeutic reduced the risk for relapse after lung cancer surgery to the same extent as has been seen with chemotherapy, but with far fewer adverse events. The product, known as MAGE-A3 antigen-specific cancer immunotherapeutic (ASCI), is being developed by GlaxoSmithKline in Belgium.

Novartis’ nonsmall cell lung cancer drug ASA404, which is designed to selectively reduce blood supply to tumors, has entered a Phase III trial.

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter ATTRACT-1 study will evaluate ASA404 in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin as a first-line treatment for locally advanced or metastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer.