Lung Cancer / Mesothelioma
I think one of the most important lead stories from ASCO 2008 got buried. Nobody’s really talking about it yet, but they should.
Amidst the results that led to an arguable role for erbitux and more compelling evidence to move second line chemo to bridge first and second line chemo together, we also received […]
A couple of weeks ago I described in a prior post the design and general results of a trial coded as JMEN by the sponsor company, Eli Lilly. This study randomized patients to either maintenance/early second line alimta (pemetrexed) or a placebo after four cycles of initial platinum-based doublet chemo with a […]
10 CommentsLast year, a provocative trial was presented at ASCO that compared early vs. later taxotere as second line therapy. I described that study here, and it showed a very significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) and a near significant improvement in overall survival (OS) for the recipients of taxotere immediately after four cycles of first line […]
5 CommentsMember Sandra recently asked the question that several other people have asked in one form or another: how do we choose among the treatment options for second line therapy in NSCLC. I’ve covered in several posts and a huge number of responses in the Q&A Forum the leading options we generally consider for second line […]
19 CommentsAlthough I’ve previously written about the question about optimal duration of therapy for first-line chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC (post here), these conclusions have been based on a limited number of trials. One study randomized patients to three or six cycles of rather old chemo and found no significant differences (abstract here). Another more recent […]
4 CommentsIressa was approved by the US FDA in May of 2003 as a third-line therapy, and for the next 18 months it was the only EGFR inhibitor on the market. At the ASCO conference a year later, Frances Shepherd, from the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto and chair of the Lung Cancer Committee for […]
0 CommentsI haven’t really covered the history or issues of directly comparing the two oral inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, which are Iressa (gefitinib) and Tarceva (erlotinib). This is really because over the last few years, gefitinib has had disappointing results in some important trials and is no longer readily used […]
0 CommentsIn contrast to the guidelines that exist for treating advanced lung cancer in the first-line setting for 4-6 cycles, there are really just practice patterns and good judgment to guide decisions of how long to treat in the second-line therapy. First, this is a relatively new question. As I previously mentioned when describing the […]
4 CommentsAlthough we are all frustrated by the relatively slow pace of progress in lung cancer, there are times when we can look back and feel that we have made a real impact. Six years ago there were no treatments that were FDA approved and appeared to benefit patients who had previously been treated with […]
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