New drug combo

The first clinical trial to combine two new targeted cancer drugs may provide a cure of lung cancer.

Researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston have revealed that the first clinical trial to combine two new targeted cancer drugs may provide a powerful "one-two punch" against lung cancer.

Tumors were controlled among 85 per cent of the 40 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who entered the Phase I/II trial of a combined regimen of bevacizumab (Avastin TM) and erlotinib (Tarceva TM).The response rate was about 20 per cent, while median survival was 12.5 months.

The treatment resulted in only mild side effects, including rash and diarrhea, and the drugs did not appear to interact adversely with one another, the investigators report.

"The anti-tumor activity was encouraging. These findings suggest not only that combining these two agents is feasible, but that this approach may provide a one-two punch against tumors that
should be further examined in larger clinical trials," Alan Sandler, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and director of the lung cancer clinical program at Vanderbilt-Ingram, said.

Despite newer chemotherapies, most of the patients become resistant to treatment or develop side effects so severe that they cannot continue treatment.

The two drugs, both delivered orally, are among newer targeted cancer agents that focus on specific molecular features of cancer cells. Because they potentially target cancer cells while sparing healthy cells, the hope for these new agents is more effective cancer therapy with fewer side effects.