Thalomid® May not Improve Outcomes of Patients with SCLC

[Christine]

Researchers from the UK have reported that the addition of Thalomid to etoposide plus Paraplatin (carboplatin) did not improve outcomes of patients with advanced small cell lung cancer SCLC). The details of this randomized trial were presented at the Presidential Symposium of the 12th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Seoul, Korea, September 2-6, 2007.

A previous study from France, presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), reported that the addition of Thalomid to intensive chemotherapy improved survival in patients with extensive SCLC (see first item of related news).

Researchers from the UK presented the results of a phase III randomized trial of etoposide/Paraplatin (carboplatin) with or without Thalomid. This study included 724 patients with extensive or limited disease who had not been previously treated. Thoracic and cranial radiotherapy was given to patients with limited disease. Almost ¾ of patients had extensive disease. The median follow-up was 24 months. The following table summarizes the main findings of this trial.

Click here to view the table: http://professional.cancerconsultants.c ... x?id=40759

These authors concluded that Thalomid in combination with etoposide and Paraplatin did not improve progression-free or overall survival of patients with advanced SCLC.

Comments: There are now two studies of Thalomid in SCLC, one from France with good results and one from the UK with poor results. The reason for these two different conclusions may not be clear until the final publication of these two studies.

Reference: Lee S-M, Woll PJ, James LE, et al. A phase III randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial of etoposide/carboplatin with or without thalidomide in advanced small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Journal of Thoracic Surgery. 2007;2:S391, Abstract PRS-04.