by Playfuls Staff |
14th December 2006
The drug Avastin has become the first medicine proven to help patients suffering from the most common form of [more] lung cancer to live longer than a year.
A landmark study announced Thursday showed the median duration of survival in the Avastin plus the paclitaxel and carboplatin chemotherapy group was 12.3 months compared with 10.3 months in the group treated with chemotherapy alone.
Overall patients treated with Avastin plus chemotherapy had an approximate 27 percent improvement in survival compared with patients receiving chemotherapy alone.
"This is the first large, randomized clinical study in which an anti-angiogenic, combined with chemotherapy, extended survival beyond one year in patients with advanced lung cancer," said Dr. Alan Sandler, director of medical thoracic oncology at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn., and leader of the drug trial. "The results of this study have changed the treatment standard of care for this devastating disease -- an important step forward for patients with advanced lung cancer."
Avastin (bevacizumab) is manufactured by Roche Ltd., headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.
The study's results are detailed in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
© 2006 UPI
