Brain cancer drug with radiation improves survival
Posted on: Monday, 31 October 2005, 07:47 CST
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.
Source: REUTERS
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