OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s Tarceva® (erlotinib) is indicated for the treatment of pancreatic cancer (first line) and non-small cell lung cancer (second line).
Tarceva (150 mg) is a pill you take once a day — every day — to help treat non-small cell lung cancer.
Tarceva (100 mg) is a pill you take once a day — every day — to help treat pancreatic cancer in combination with gemcitabine.
However, patients on Tarceva® breaks into skin rashes that look like acne which can be of discomfort to some patients, enough for them to discontinue the treatment.
Phase III clinical trial of Tarveca® revealed that appearance …read more

Manufactured and marketed by Eli Lilly and Company, ALIMTA® (pemetrexed for injection) is indicated as a second-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and in combination with cisplatin is indicated for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural unresectable mesothelioma.
Now, according to Phase III study clinical data, a first-line ALIMTA®-based regimen may deliver less toxicity than a commonly used therapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The said clinical data as presented at ASCO 43rd Annual Meeting came from the prospective, randomized, multicenter Phase III study conducted to compare ALIMTA® plus carboplatin with the commonly used regimen of GEMZAR® …read more

In patients with stage IIIA non-small-cell lung cancer, radiation may be a better option than surgery after an initial chemotherapy treatment – according to a randomized controlled trial conducted by Jan van Meerbeeck, M.D., Ph.D., of the University Hospital of Ghent in Belgium, and colleagues from the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).
The researchers found that surgery, compared to radiation, did not improve survival after treatment with chemotherapy.
…radiation was the preferred treatment because of its lower rate of complications and mortality in lung cancer patients.
Surgery and chemotherapy has been previously found to be superior to chemotherapy alone …read more

As recently announced by Biomira Inc., the global Phase III clinical trial – START (Stimulating Targeted Antigenic Responses To NSCLC), that is assessing the efficacy and safety of Stimuvax® (BLP25 liposome vaccine) as a potential treatment for patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is open for patient enrollment.
There are currently no approved maintenance therapies for patients responding to first-line treatment for unresectable stage III NSCLC.
The trial is now open to patients in 12 countries including the United States which will subsequently expand to additional countries is expected to include more than 1, 300 patients in about …read more

The Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) has applauded the USFDA on its recent approval of Avastin (bevacizumab) for the most common type of lung cancer.
Laurie Fenton, President of Lung Cancer Alliance in Washington, D.C. stated:
“Lung cancer is responsible for over one-third of all U.S. cancer deaths, killing more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver and kidney cancers combined each year.
Sadly, we have few arrows in our treatment quiver to address this lethal killer. That is why the ability to use Avastin as a treatment method, along with chemotherapy, is a significant development for the lung cancer community.”

Manufactured by Genentech, Inc. (NYSE: DNA), …read more

According to a new study appearing in the September 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the modern three-dimensional radiation therapy proved to be more successful in curing lung cancer as compared to the older two-dimensional radiation therapy in some patients with early stage lung cancer.
87% of all lung cancer diagnosed is non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), whose current best treatment for stage 1 is surgery or stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT), usually followed by chemotherapy (if lesion was larger than 3 cm) or radiotherapy and chemotherapy (if surgical margin or hilar or mediastinal nodes were positive at the …read more