Brain cancer drug with radiation improves survival

PARIS (Reuters) – Patients using Schering-Plough Corp’s
Temodal along with radiation therapy after surgery for the most
common and aggressive form of primary brain cancer showed
prolonged survival in a recent study, the U.S. drugmaker said
on Monday.

Patients who took Temodal capsules and received radiation
therapy after their tumor was surgically removed showed an
18.3-month median survival, compared with 14.2 months for those
on radiation therapy alone after surgery, it said.

Overall survival time was the main target of the study in a
multi-center trial of 573 patients with newly diagnosed
glioblastoma multiforme.

“Our expectations were exceeded in this study, particularly
among patients who underwent complete resection followed by
Temodal and radiation therapy,” Dr. Martin van den Bent, head
of the neuro-oncology unit at the Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center
in Rotterdam, said in a statement.

The study, presented at the 13th European Cancer Conference
(ECCO 13), was conducted by the European Organization for
Research and Treatment of Cancer and the National Cancer
Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group.

Temodal, also known as Temodar and launched in 1999, is the
only widely used drug for the brain cancer, which usually kills
patients within a year.

Surgery included complete tumor removal among almost 40
percent of the patients in the trial, partial removal among 44
percent and biopsy among 16 percent of the patients, Schering
said. In all cases Temodal along with radiation improved
survival versus radiation therapy alone.

Improvement was also demonstrated in two-year survival
rates among patients who underwent complete tumor removal
surgery — showing that just over 37 percent of the patients on
Temodal survived compared with 14.5 percent of those on
radiation only.

In June, Schering won European Union marketing approval for
Temodal capsules in combination with radiotherapy, followed by
treatment with Temodal alone. This followed similar approval
from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March.