Justakid Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 Anyone familiar with Avastin? My doctor is in FL at a conference all week, one of the topics is Avastin (which is currently used for colon cancer) being combined with LC chemos and used on LC patients. Anyone else know about this? I told them to shoot me up with it....I'll try anything once! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddys Little Girl @ 35! Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 a ton of different web sites. This one was quite interesting. Here is the copy/paste from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 070102.htm, hope this helps: Avastin-Tarceva Combo Provides 'One-Two' Punch Against Lung Cancer Results of the first clinical trial to combine two new targeted cancer drugs suggest that the combination may provide a powerful "one-two punch" against lung cancer, the nation's leading cancer killer. Related News Stories FDA Approves New Drug For The Most Common Type Of Lung Cancer (November 25, 2004) -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of Tarceva (erlotinib) tablets as a single agent treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer ... > full story Targeted Therapy For Lung Cancer Patients Shows Promise In Extending Lives (June 23, 2004) -- Oncologists at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, are studying what they believe may be the wave of the future for treating patients with advanced stage lung cancer: individualized targeted ... > full story New Drug May Help Fight Some Lung Cancers (March 19, 2004) -- Northwestern Memorial Hospital is the only Chicago area hospital currently enrolling participants in a research study to find out if the drug Tarceva, also know as erlotinib, may help fight ... > full story Revolutionary Treatment For Inoperable Lung Cancer (February 7, 2000) -- The Indiana University School of Medicine will be the first site in the nation to investigate a new non-invasive therapy that may help patients with medically inoperable, early-stage lung cancer. The ... > full story > more related stories -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related section: Health & Medicine The work, led by researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn., and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, was presented at the 40th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans. Tumors were controlled among 85 percent of the 40 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who entered the Phase I/II trial of a combined regimen of bevacizumab (Avastin TM) and erlotinib (Tarceva TM). The response rate – proportion of patients whose tumors shrank in size by more than half – was about 20 percent, while median survival was 12.5 months. This compares to about 10 percent response and between six and eight months median survival with traditional therapy or erlotinib alone, said Alan Sandler, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and director of the lung cancer clinical program at Vanderbilt-Ingram. The treatment resulted in only mild side effects, including rash and diarrhea, and the drugs did not appear to interact adversely with one another, the investigators report. "The anti-tumor activity was encouraging," said Sandler, who presented the research at the meeting. "These findings suggest not only that combining these two agents is feasible, but that this approach may provide a one-two punch against tumors that should be further examined in larger clinical trials." Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more than 157,000 people each year, more than the next four leading cancers (colorectal, breast, prostate and pancreas) combined. About 85 percent of all lung cancers are non-small cell cancers, and nearly half of these patients are diagnosed with advanced disease and receive only chemotherapy or supportive care, the investigators say. Despite newer third-generation chemotherapies, most of these patients become resistant to treatment or develop side effects so severe that they cannot continue treatment. "Less toxic and more effective treatments are clearly needed," Sandler said. The two drugs, both delivered orally, are among newer so-called targeted cancer agents that focus on specific molecular features of cancer cells. Because they potentially target cancer cells while sparing healthy cells, the hope for these new agents is more effective cancer therapy with fewer side effects. Bevacizumab blocks the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is involved in making new blood vessels (a process called angiogenesis) that help feed tumor growth and spread. Erlotinib inhibits the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr), a key player in delivery of signals that prompt the runaway cell growth that characterizes cancers. Increased activity of the EGFr pathway, as well as increased number of tumor blood vessels resulting from VEGF expression, are associated with poorer outcomes for patients with NSCLC, the investigators note. Other research has suggested that activities of EGFr and VEGF are related – EGFr appears to play a role in angiogenesis, while blocking VEGF appears to interrupt EGFr signaling. As a result, the researchers suspect that a dual blockade of these targets may be synergistic. Interim results from this research were presented at last year's ASCO meeting in Chicago, prompting other investigators across the country to examine this combination in other tumor types as well as combine other targeted agents in clinical trials, Sandler said. At the time the study was launched, it was the first time two drugs that had not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were combined in a trial. Since that time, bevacizumab has been approved for use in advanced colorectal cancer in combination with chemotherapy. Erlotinib is pending FDA approval. Co-investigators include Roy Herbst, Eric Mininberg, Ted Henderson, Edward Kim, George Blumenschein Jr., Jack Lee, Mylene Truong, and Waun Hong of M.D. Anderson; David Johnson and David Carbone of Vanderbilt-Ingram; Ben Garcia of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; and Dong Xie and Sean Kelley of Genentech Inc., which makes both drugs and funded the clinical trial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carls Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 my father was just taken off tarceva becuase his onc didnt feel it was working. we were then considering avistan and altima because we read about it online. we do not have it in canada. he has mets to the brain and we heard from our onc that recent studies are saying it is various dangerous for ppl to take it with mets to the brain. she was at a conference which took place in florida and when we did a search on google we found some info that scared us. it said if you have brain mets there is a risk of internal bleeding in the brain. we are now not sure where to turn. there are no clinical trials where he is a candiate in canada becuase he has mets to the brain. we were considering iressa but arent sure if it will work because it is a sister drug to tarceva. for now he is taking nothing but prayers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaneC Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 Beth, I was on Avastin for 1 year before I had progression. I really didn't have any side effects from it at all and it did seem to help keep things stable. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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