cisplatin and CPT-11

[Guest Jonathan]

I want everyone on here to know that the new drug CPT-11 camptosar is one of the most promising and effective drugs in geting a response out of small cell lung cancer. Studies are continuously showing that first line therpay using

cisplain with CPT-11 is showing greater response rates and better overall survival than cisplatin and etoposide, which is the standard first line treatment today. However, even thought he trails are still going on many oncologists are beginning to use this regmine as thir new first line anyway, even without approval. Many are giving it on an off trial basis for first line therapy anyway, because they know the studies are continuously showing greater and more prolonged response rates.

Also, as I realize many of you have already had or begun your first line treatment, they are also using it as second or third line treatment with small cell lung cancer. The only difference is that they are not giving it with cisplatin, they are giving it with gemzar. This is a trial going on in many different places, and it looks very promising to me.

So you may want to ask your oncologists about giving CPT-11 with gemzar if God forbid your current therapy is fails you.

hang in there guys- I'm workin hard to find new things and hope for all of you.

Best wishes for a cure to you all-

Jonathan

te11t@aol.com

[Carleen]

My husband just finished two rounds of Cisplatin and CPT-11. He will get a scan next week, and we will find out the results on the 19th. I am hoping and praying that this first line of treatment is really really effective.

I am glad I saw your posting, because our onc. told us he was going to treat Keith aggressively, and I was beginning to believe that was just lip service because we are already on a break after only two cycles.

I just wasn't prepared to stop fighting so soon. I wanted to fill my husband up to the max. with cancer killing agents until he is completely in remission. Now we wait and see, and I fear this time in between without treatment, and what can possibly be going on in his body.

[Jenny G.]

Jonathan,

Thank you so much for this information. I really appreciate the time and concern you give here.

Jenny

[kimblanchard]

Johnathan

Is CPT11 successful with NSCLC? We are trying to find a solution ASAP!

Peg

[Guest Jonathan2]

Dear Peg,

Yes CPT-11 is being used on non small cell lung cancers and is effective in shrinking them from what I have researched and heard. However, fist line therapy is still carboplatin and taxol for most NSCLC tumors. Combinatin chemotherapy is the most aggressive wayto trea lun cancer, that is not to say that the use of single agents is ineffective or inappropriate, just not as aggressive. You may want to ask your oncologist about combining gemzar and CPT-11 as I have heard great things about this new combinaton in both forms of lung cancer.

Here are some drugs that I kow are used to treat NSCLC...

carboplatin and taxol regimen

CPT-11

gemzar

taxotere

navelbine

vinblastine

cytoxin with adriamycin and vincristine

iressa

Sincerely,

Jonathan

[Peggy H]

Jonathan -

I was glad to see this post - my sister, with NSCLC - is supposed to start on the CPT11 + cisplatin on Tuesday (she's had ALL the other usual NSCLC drugs, including IRESSA). A note for others with NSCLC, because CPT11 is NOT yet approved for NSCLC, my sister's health insurance would not cover the cost - at about $10,000 per infusion, according to her oncologist. So, he used something called a "trade agreement" directly with the drug company & they are providing it to her for FREE! She only has to pay administrative/handling costs!

[john]

Peggy,

They are doing a lot of trials with Irinotecan(cpt-11, camptosar) and other chemo(gemcitabine, cisplatin and others) in Japan for NSCLC.

They can be found on pubmed

The response rate for CPT-11 and cisplatin in this study was 44%

Randomised phase III trial of irinotecan combined with cisplatin for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

Negoro S, Masuda N, Takada Y, Sugiura T, Kudoh S, Katakami N, Ariyoshi Y, Ohashi Y, Niitani H, Fukuoka M; CPT-11 Lung Cancer Study Group West.

Department of Clinical Oncology, Osaka City General Hospital, Osaka, Japan. m6122765@msic.med.osaka-cu.ac.jp

To determine a standard combination chemotherapy for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we conducted a phase III trial of irinotecan (CPT-11) to test the hypotheses that CPT-11+cisplatin is superior to cisplatin+vindesine and that CPT-11 monotherapy is not inferior to cisplatin+vindesine. A total of 398 patients with previously untreated NSCLC were randomised to receive cisplatin+CPT-11 (CPT-P), cisplatin+vindesine (VDS-P) or CPT-11 alone (CPT). In the CPT-P arm, CPT-11 60 mg m(-2) was administered on days 1, 8 and 15, and cisplatin 80 mg m(-2) was administered on day 1. In the VDS-P arm, cisplatin 80 mg m(-2) was administered on day 1, and vindesine 3 mg m(-2) was administered on days 1, 8 and 15. In the CPT arm, CPT-11 100 mg m(-2) was administered on days 1, 8 and 15. The median survival time was 50.0 weeks for patients on CPT-P, 45.6 weeks for those on VDS-P and 46.0 weeks for those on CPT (P=0.115, CPT-P vs VDS-P; P=0.089, CPT vs VDS-P), and the hazard ratio was 0.85 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.65-1.11) for CPT-P vs VDS-P and 0.83 (0.64-1.09) for CPT vs VDS-P. The response rate was 43.7% for patients on CPT-P, 31.7% for those on VDS-P and 20.5% for those on CPT. Major adverse reactions were grade 4 neutropenia observed in 37, 54 and 8% of the patients on CPT-P, VDS-P and CPT, respectively; and grades 3 and 4 diarrhoea observed in 12, 3 and 15% of the patients, respectively. CPT-P therapy produces comparable survival to VDS-P in patients with advanced NSCLC. CPT-11 monotherapy is not inferior to VDS-P in terms of survival. The CPT-11-containing regimen is one of the most efficacious and well tolerated in the treatment of advanced NSCLC.