Chemo Combo Promising for Lung Cancer

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Chemo Combo Promising for Lung Cancer

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A combination of two chemotherapy regimens may be a viable alternative to current treatments for non-small cell lung cancer.

A study conducted at Kinki University School of Medicine in Osaka, Japan, looked at how effective two different chemotherapy agents were in treating lung cancer. Currently the agents are most often used in treating gastric and colorectal cancers. One agent known as S-1 showed a response rate of 22 percent with a median survival time of 10.2 months when tested as a first-line chemotherapy for advanced lung cancer.

When the S-1 treatment was used in combination with Irinotecan, which is approved in the U.S. for treating colon cancer, the response rate was 28 percent. Median progression-free survival was 4.9 months and the median overall survival was 15 months.

The study’s lead investigator, Isamu Okamoto, M.D., Ph.D. an associate professor of oncology, said the findings “compared favorably” with the standard platinum-based lung cancer treatments, which show response rates of 17 to 33 percent, progression-free survival of three to five months and a median overall survival time of seven to 14 months. “This is a promising alternative but needs further testing in randomized trials,” Okamoto was quoted as saying.

SOURCE: Clinical Cancer Research, August 15, 2008