CHICAGO (Reuters) -
Eli Lilly and Co's chemotherapy drug
Gemzar more than doubled the overall survival for early stage
pancreatic cancer patients five years after surgery to remove
their tumors, according to results from a long-term study
released on Saturday.

Gemzar, or gemcitabine, is the standard treatment for
patients whose pancreatic cancer is too advanced for surgery.
Most pancreatic cancer is diagnosed at a late stage.

Researchers at the Charite University Medical School in
Berlin studied the drug in patients with early stage pancreatic
cancer who had received surgery, concluding it should be the
standard of care for those patients as well. Just 15 percent to
20 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed
with the disease early enough to be eligible for surgery.

The study was presented at the American Society of Clinical
Oncology in Chicago.

Earlier data from the study, released in 2005, found
patients who received Gemzar after surgery were free of the
disease longer than those who received no specific anti-cancer
treatment.

“Based on the earlier results of this study, this regimen
is already more widely used in both Europe and the United
States. These findings can reassure physicians that the drug is
also extending lives,” Dr. Hanno Riess, the trial's lead
investigator, said in a statement.

In the study of 368 patients, the overall survival rate was
36.5 percent at three years and 21 percent at five years for
the group who received Gemzar, compared with 19.5 percent at
three years and 9 percent at five years for the observation
group.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)