Imclone put out a press release yesterday that the previously described, US-based BMS-099 trial of carboplatin-taxane (either taxol (paclitaxel) or taxotere (docetaxel), investigator's discretion) with or without the EGFR monoclonal antibody erbitux (ceteuximab) has failed to demonstrate a statistically significant i

One of the core ideas in the management of stage III, or locally advanced, NSCLC is that unresectable disease that is being treated with curative intent is most effectively treated with a combination of concurrent systemic ("whole body") therapy and chest radiation to all of the visible cancer.

While there have been new agents introduced and rapidly changing standards in advanced NSCLC, another 40% of patients with NSCLC have locally advanced (stage III) NSCLC, many of whom with disease that is not resectable but is potentially curable with agressive chemo and radiation.

The FLEX trial raises a number of additional points as we struggle to determine how to integrate Erbitux (cetuximab) into the current standards of care. One question is whether we can refine how well we do with Erbitux by using clinical or molecular variables to select better or worse candidates for it. I already mentioned in my prior post that Asian patients (among whom 52% were never-smokers) had a far better survi

Within the lung cancer community, the biggest story from the ASCO meeting was the long-awaited plenary session presentation (abstract here) of the FLEX trial of chemo with or without the EGFR monoclonal antibody Erbitux (cetuximab) that we knew was statistically significantly positive for an overall survival benefit as far back as September of last year (see

There's a single lung cancer trial being presented 6/1/08 at ASCO's Plenary Session, at which the most important cancer studies of the year are presented. This is on the FLEX trial that I described in a prior post, and which was already reported to be positive, at a press release all the way back in September of last year.

Although it’s only a leak from a “reliable source”, news came yesterday (link here) about a new lung cancer development from a financial source (yet another example of us learning oncology from Wall Streeters). Specifically, we heard that the BMS-099 that I described in a prior post is actually demonstrating a significant benefit in overall survival (OS).

The antibody to the epidermal growth factor receptor erbitux (cetuximab) (introductory post here) has been used as an effective treatment for colon and also head and neck cancer for several years, but its role in lung cancer has yet to be defined.

In my last post, I noted that the FLEX trial of cisplatin/navelbine with or without the EGFR monoclonal antibody erbitux was reported to be positive, demonstrating a significant survival benefit.

Merck KgAA, the company developing cetuximab/Erbitux, the monoclonal antibody against EGFR, reviewed here) outside of the US, has announced that their pivotal FLEX trial (for First-Line Trial for patients with EGFR-Expressing Advanced NSCLC) is positive, demonstrating a signficant improvement in overall survival, as indicated