Drug Triples Lung Cancer Survival

The cancer drug Tarceva (erlotinib) almost triples the survival time of lung cancer patients with almost no negative effects, says a study published in Lancet Oncology. Patients who received the drug, which is widely available, survived an average of 13.1 months before their cancer recurred compared to only 4.6 months in a group that received chemotherapy.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common form of the disease, and Tarceva targets a specific gene mutation — EGFR — that occurs in about 30 percent of Asian NSCLC victims and 8 percent of Caucasian patients. The mutation is also more common in women and those who have never smoked.

The randomized phase 3 trial, which was partially funded by Roche, the company that manufactures Tarceva, involved 165 patients with advanced lung cancer who had the EGFR gene mutation. They were divided into two groups and one group was given Tarceva. The other group was given up to four cycles of two chemotherapy drugs — gemcitabine and carboplatin. In addition to tripling their survival time without a recurrence of their disease, those taking Tarceva had far fewer side effects than those undergoing chemotherapy, and the numbers of patients hospitalized due to side effects were also much lower.

As a result of their study at the Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital in China, the researchers recommended that Tarceva be used as the first-line treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who have the genetic mutation. Currently, the drug is approved for use in lung cancer patients who fail to respond to initial chemotherapy treatment.

“This is a very important study [because] it shows that we can identify patients with a specific genetic marker and direct specific treatment toward them,” Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Oshsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La., told HealthDay.

While other studies had hinted that Tarceva extended survival rates, this was the first study to show that patients lived for more than a year without a recurrence of their cancer.

Tarceva costs about $30,000 a month, which is approximately the same as many forms of chemotherapy.