Roche launches Tarceva for lung cancer

[dadstimeon]

http://www.expresspharmaonline.com/2006 ... et05.shtml

Our News Bureau - Mumbai

Roche Scientific Company announced that the innovative drug, Tarceva (erlotinib) will be available in India. Tarceva brings a glimmer of hope to Indians suffering from lung cancer. More than 90,000 men and 79,000 women are diagnosed each year in India with cancer of the lungs and bronchi.

Tarceva is a novel therapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), after failure of at least one prior chemotherapy regimen. It is an oral tablet taken once a day and has the potential to treat many types of solid tumours. It has been approved in the US since November 2004 and in the European Union since September 2005.

The drug has demonstraed a striking survival benefit (42.5 percent) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease. It has also been shown to significantly improve patients' quality of life by alleviating the severe and debilitating symptoms that characterise advanced stages of the disease, such as cough, pain and breathlessness.

Chemotherapy can be very debilitating due to its toxic nature. Tarceva works differently to chemotherapy by specifically targeting tumour cells, avoiding the typical side-effects of chemotherapy

“During the last decade, there have only been marginal improvements in the effectiveness of chemotherapy agents”, said Dr G L Telang, Managing Director of Roche Scientific Company. “Tarceva is an innovative breakthrough in the treatment of lung cancer. It is the only Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor inhibitor to have demonstrated a survival benefit in lung cancer,” he added.

Currently, most people with lung cancer are treated with chemotherapy, which can be very debilitating due to its toxic nature. Tarceva works differently to chemotherapy by specifically targeting tumour cells, avoiding typical side-effects of chemotherapy.