The negative trials don't get a lot of discussion, but the ZEPHYR trial, a phase III study that directly compared Zactima (vandetanib), an oral inhibitor of EGFR and angiogenesis, vs. placebo, was one that merits some follow-up after my reporting that it failed to show a survival benefit, which was essentially the only thing we learned about the trial prior to ASCO this year.

AstraZeneca (AZ) just issued a press release noting that they are withdrawing their application for the "multi-kinase inhibitor" Zactima (vandetanib) to receive FDA approval to be given along with chemo in advanced NSCLC right now.

Member Neil Berch just wrote a nice summary of the four large randomized clinical trials being done with Zactima (vandetanib), an oral targeted therapy that can block both the VEGF (angiogenic) and EGFR pathways. In fact, the name vandetanib comes from blocking V and E.

This post will be a little different from most of the expert posts on GRACE. I’m not an expert. I’m not an oncologist. In fact, I’m not a physician. I’m a patient with a social science background, and I’ve followed the work on the drug I’m writing about for some time. I’ve been interested in Zactima (vandetanib) for two reasons. First, I thought the early trials looked promising, and it might eventually be a drug that could help me. Second (and this is going to drive Dr. West crazy), the four large phase III trials of Zactima have really catchy acronyms (see below).