- SATURDAY, May 31 (HealthDay News) — The long-awaited results of
a trial of the biologic drug Erbitux on patients with advanced non-small
cell lung cancer show it prolonged survival by about five weeks when
combined with chemotherapy.

Medical professionals have known the drug improved survival, but the
question has been by how much.

“This will give us more options to treat patients with non-small cell
lung cancer, for whom the prognosis is very poor. Five-year survival is
less than 5 percent,” said Dr. Shakun Malik, director of the lung cancer
program at Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in
Washington, D.C.

“We haven't had much happening in the treatment of lung cancer for a
long time,” she added. “We now have some tremendous progress being made,
and most of this is from the addition of biological therapies.”

“For lung cancer, a small step forward is a big step, but it's always a
question - this is four or five weeks, what does that really mean?” said
Dr. Karen Reckamp, an assistant professor of medicine at City of Hope
Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.

There have been other trials involving Erbitux with similar
chemotherapy regimens which did not show any benefits. This is the
second study that has shown an improvement, Reckamp said.

“We have other negative studies. How is this going to fit into our
packet? It does show a survival benefit. The toxicities are probably
relatively reasonable,” Reckamp said. “I think it's a drug that, with some
discussion and some careful understanding of how this trial is different,
will be something we do utilize in the right patients.”

Avastin (bevacizumab), which blocks blood supply to the tumor, is
currently the only targeted therapy approved for this type of lung cancer.
Erbitux would be the second such drug approved for this use. Erbitux is
made by ImClone Systems Inc. and marketed by Merck in Europe. Merck funded
the study.

Erbitux (cetuximab) affects the epidermal growth factor receptor,
believed to play a role in this type of cancer. It is already approved for
and used in patients with cancer of the colon and the head and neck.

The study involved 1,125 patients, almost all of whom had stage IV
cancer. Participants were randomized to receive either platinum-based
chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy plus Erbitux.

Those in the Erbitux group lived an average of 11.3 months vs. 10.1
months for those who received a placebo. The response rate was also better
in those receiving Erbitux: 36.3 percent vs. 29.2 percent.

And unlike other targeted therapies, the benefit was seen in all
subtypes of the disease, said the Austrian researchers, whose findings
were released Saturday in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American
Society of Clinical Oncology.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States,
with roughly 30 percent of all cancer deaths linked to this type of
malignancy, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance.

More information

Visit the National Cancer Institute for more on lung cancer.