(Press-News.org) Lung cancer patients who have already been treated with the EGFR inhibitors erlotinib or gefitinib seem to gain further benefits in terms of progression-free survival and tumor shrinkage when treated with the new drug afatinib, the results of a Phase IIb/III trial show.
At the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy, Dr Vincent Miller from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA, reported findings from the LUX-Lung 1 trial of afatinib in 585 patients with lung adenocarcinoma whose cancer had progressed after chemotherapy and erlotinib or gefitinib.
The participants were randomly assigned to either best supportive care plus a placebo, or supportive care plus afatinib, which is an irreversible inhibitor of two cancer-associated cell surface molecules --epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).
While the results showed no significant difference in overall survival between the two groups, patients who were given afatinib saw disease progression delayed and were more likely to experience tumor shrinkage, Dr Miller said.
Median overall survival was 10.78 months for patients who received supportive care plus afatinib, compared to 11.96 months for those receiving supportive care plus placebo. "The median overall survival for both arms was expected to be approximately five months," Dr Miller said. "The fact that it was nearly one year was unexpected."
Median progression-free survival was 3.3 months for patients administered afatinib, compared to 1.1 month in the placebo group. The disease control rate after 8 weeks of therapy was 58% in the afatinib arm, and 19% for the placebo arm. The investigator analysis saw an overall response rate of 11% in afatinib patients, compared to 0.5% for those receiving placebo plus best supportive care.
"Our study showed that adding afatinib to best supportive care improved progression free but not overall survival as compared to placebo and best supportive care in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who previously received chemotherapy and either gefitinib or erlotinib," Dr Miller said.
Although the trial did not achieve its primary endpoint of extending life, this does not diminish the potential value of this drug in treating patients with this most lethal cancer killer, Dr Miller said.
"The fact that afatinib induced objective regressions in a population with no or limited treatment options, delayed progression of cancer and associated with some improvement in cancer-related symptoms cannot be minimized," said Dr Miller.
"The LUX-lung 1 randomized phase III trial demonstrates that afatinib (BIBW2992) is a very active compound in NSCLC," commented Professor Jean-Charles Soria from Institut Gustave Roussy, Paris, France.
"The lack of survival benefit may be related to the likely high enrichment of the trial population by EGFR mutated patients with outstanding median survival times of around 11 months in the 3rd/4th line setting," Prof Soria added. Such survivals are unprecedented in NSCLC and simply highlight the intrinsic good prognosis of EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients.
INFORMATION: END
A new-generation lung cancer drug has shown an impressive ability to prevent disease progression when administered as a first-line treatment in patients with advanced disease, investigators reported at the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).
Preliminary results from an ongoing Phase-II trial of the drug PF299804 (PF-299) showed that close to 85% of patients whose cancers harbor mutated forms of the EGFR gene have remained progression-free for at least nine months, reported Dr Tony Mok from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
While some ...
An ongoing Phase-II trial investigating a new, targeted therapy for metastatic urothelial cancer has generated promising early results, Italian researchers reported at the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy.
Urothelial cancers affect the tissue lining the inner surfaces of the bladder and other parts of the urinary system. In cases of metastatic disease, median survival is approximately 12-15 months and there is a 10-15% chance of prolonging it by the use of standard chemotherapy regimens, particularly in otherwise healthy ...
The results of a large Phase-III clinical trial have shown that the drug everolimus delays tumor progression in patients with a hard-to-treat group of rare cancers that affect particular hormone-producing cells.
At the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), Dr Marianne Pavel from Charité University in Berlin, Germany reported that everolimus improved progression-free survival by 5.1 months in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors.
Neuroendocrine tumors are slow-growing malignancies that originate from cells of the body's neuroendocrine ...
A new class of compounds identified by researchers at Emory University School of Medicine could be developed into drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia. The compounds enhance signaling by molecules in the brain called NMDA receptors, which scientists believe are functioning at low levels in people with schizophrenia.
Led by Stephen Traynelis, PhD, professor of pharmacology, a team of Emory researchers sifted through thousands of chemicals and found one, called CIQ, which could selectively enhance the function of certain NMDA receptors without affecting others.
The ...
Iowa City, IA—October 11, 2010— A new study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology finds that college-aged men are very likely to remember a woman's initial sexual interest (attraction or rejection), especially when the woman in question is thought to be attractive, is dressed more provocatively, and expresses positive sexual interest.
In the study the men were shown full-body photographs of college-aged women who expressed cues of sexual interest or rejection. The participating males represented mixed sexual histories, and a capacity for varying degrees of sexually ...
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- University of Florida researchers presenting new fossil evidence of an exceptionally well-preserved 55-million-year-old North American mammal have found it shares a common ancestor with rodents and primates, including humans.The study published today in the online edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, describes the cranial anatomy of the extinct mammal, Labidolemur kayi.
High resolution CT scans of the specimens allowed researchers to study minute details in the skull, including bone structures smaller than one-tenth of a millimeter. ...
The genetic inherited material DNA was long viewed as the sole bearer of hereditary information. The function of its packaging proteins, the histones, was believed to be exclusively structural. Additional genetic information can be stored, however, and passed on to subsequent generations through chemical changes in the DNA or histones. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen have succeeded in creating an experimental system for testing the function of such chemical histone modifications and their influence on the organism. Chemical ...
More brilliant X-rays, more cost-effective methods for developing new energy sources and advanced manufacturing processes are just some of the benefits which may come from a novel technology, proven at the theoretical level by a consortium of British and European laser scientists. The research, led by scientists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Central Laser Facility is published in this week's edition of Nature Physics (October 10 2010).
A team of scientists from the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon, Imperial College London, and the Universities ...
A University of Colorado at Boulder space dust counter designed, tested and operated by students that is flying aboard NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto now holds the record for the most distant working dust detector ever to travel through space.
The instrument on the New Horizons mission -- officially named the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, or SDC, after an 11-year-old English girl who named Pluto more than 75 years ago -- reached a distance of 1.67 billion miles from Earth on Oct. 10. Designed by a student team from CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric ...
Providence, RI---It was a mathematician, Joseph Fourier (1768-1830),
who coined the term "greenhouse effect". That this term, so commonly
used today to describe human effects on the global climate, originated
with a mathematician points to the insights that mathematics can offer
into environmental problems. Three articles in the November 2010
issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society examine ways
in which mathematics can contribute to understanding environmental and
ecological issues.
"Earthquakes and Weatherquakes: Mathematics and Climate Change", ...