New small-cell lung cancer therapy studied

A U.S.-led international study suggests the combination of two drugs can delay disease progression for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Dr. Vincent Miller of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one of the study’s leaders, said the goal was to determine whether adding erlotinib (Tarceva) to maintenance therapy with bevacizumab (Avastin), an agent commonly used as a component of treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, would delay disease progression.

This is the first study to show the addition of erlotinib to maintenance therapy prolongs progression-free survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, Miller, a thoracic oncologist, said. Knowing which patients will get the greatest benefit from this combination, based on the identification of biomarkers, will be an important next step in this research.

Miller presented the study during the weekend in Orlando, Fla., at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.