Home>News>Article

New Lung-Cancer Drug Treatment Could Offer Hope

USA TODAY

     The drugs, Camptosar plus cisplatin, are one of the first chemotherapy combinations to show more than a minimal difference in survival for any advanced cancer, experts said.

     ''For the first time, a physician can look a patient in the eye and say, you have a better than a 50% chance of living longer than a year,'' said Alan Sandler, medical director of the Thoracic Oncology Program, Indiana University School of Medicine.

     Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths and is expected to kill 150,000 people in the USA this year. Small-cell lung cancer is the deadliest variety. It accounts for 25% of lung cancer cases in the USA and 15% of cases in Japan. It's deadly because by the time it is diagnosed, it has spread widely through the body.

     If the small-cell lung cancer is untreated, the life expectancy of a patient is six to eight weeks from diagnosis. With standard chemotherapy of cisplatin and etoposide, 38% can survive one year, and 6% can survive two years.

     With the new combination, 58% of patients survived one year, and 18% of patients survived two years, says Nagahiro Saijo, chairman of medical oncology at the National Cancer Center in Tokyo. Results, which were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, were considered so dramatic that the study was halted nearly a year ahead of time, Saijo said.

     Sandler will head a nationwide study beginning in June at Vanderbilt University in Nashville to confirm results of the Japanese study. The study will involve 400 patients.

     The research was sponsored by Pharmacia & Upjohn of Peapack, N.J., which makes Camptosar.

     Most side effects, including severe drops in various blood-cell counts, were lower with the new combination. Diarrhea was more severe.

     Researchers also reported an advance with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with a drug that combines a radioactive isotope with an agent called a monoclonal antibody, which is designed to target specific immune system cells affected by the cancer.

     Mark Kaminski of the University of Michigan said the targeted therapy, called Bexxar, produced complete remissions of 76% of patients studied. Most notable, 58 of 76 patients had a molecular remission, which suggests a disease might be cured. A molecular remission means there are no detectable signs of cancer in the body. Clinical remission means symptoms disappear, but cancer lurks in cells.

     The study was sponsored by Coulter Pharmaceutical of San Francisco. Side effects included low blood counts and weakened immune systems.

     To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com

© Copyright 2000 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.