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Highlights from ASCO 2008
A collection of links to material summarizing some of the important clinical trial results announced at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
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Cetuximab Plus Chemotherapy Extends Survival for Advanced Lung CancerAdapted from the NCI Cancer Bulletin, vol. 5/no. 12, June 10, 2008 (see the current issue).
Patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received cetuximab
(Erbitux) plus chemotherapy lived on average 5 weeks longer than
patients who received chemotherapy alone, according to results
reported at the ASCO annual meeting.
In the phase III FLEX trial, 1,125 patients with all types of
NSCLC were randomly assigned to receive standard platinum-based
chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy plus cetuximab. Nearly all of the
patients had stage IV disease. Overall survival was higher for those
who received cetuximab plus chemotherapy (11.3 months) compared with
those who received chemotherapy alone (10.1 months).
The benefit of the combination therapy was seen in patients
with all histological subtypes of NSCLC, including adenocarcinoma and
squamous cell carcinoma, the two most common subtypes. The main side
effect was an acne-like skin rash that could be managed.
"Patients with advanced NSCLC have limited treatment options
and life expectancy is short, so the survival increase shown in this
study is an important step for these patients," noted Dr. Robert
Pirker, an associate professor of medicine at the Medical University of
Vienna in Austria and the study's lead author.
The only other final-stage randomized trial to show a survival
benefit in lung cancer was a 2005
study of bevacizumab
(Avastin) plus chemotherapy. Unlike the current study, that trial did
not include patients with squamous cell carcinoma.
Dr. Thomas Lynch of Massachusetts General Hospital, who
commented on the findings at ASCO, said the study was well done and
produced "a clinically meaningful benefit for a large population."
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