LungBlog

In patients with limited-stage, small-cell lung cancer being treated with chemotherapy, survival is not affected if thoracic radiotherapy is administered early or later in the course of chemotherapy (cycle 2 versus cycle 6), results of a British study suggest.  Far more relevant, the investigators observed, is that patients do markedly better when they receive the entire dose of chemotherapy.

Oncology specialists Poniard Pharmaceuticals have successfully enrolled 75 patients in a trial for its new drug treatment for the aggressive small cell lung cancer (SCLC).  The product called Picoplatin is an intravenous platinum-based chemotherapy drug that has been designed to overcome the problems normally associated with resistance in chemotherapy regimes using platinum compounds.  Picoplatin is Poniard’s leading candidate for a treatment for SCLC, which is the most deadly and aggressive form of lung cancer accounting for roughly 20 per cent of all cases presented to US and European doctors.