Drug combo gives lung cancer patients longer life

Preliminary results from a large randomized clinical trial, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), by a network of researchers led by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. Genentech, Inc., have shown that patients with previously untreated advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer who received bevacizumab (Avastin) in combination with standard chemotherapy lived longer than patients who received the same chemotherapy without bevacizumab.

Genentech, the manufacturer, provided the drug for the trial under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NCI for the clinical development of bevacizumab.

The Data Monitoring Committee overseeing the trial (known as E4599) recommended that the results of a recent interim analysis be made public because the study had met its primary goal of improving overall survival. Researchers found that patients in the study who received bevacizumab in combination with standard chemotherapy (a treatment regimen of paclitaxel and carboplatin) had a median overall survival of 12.5 months compared to patients treated with the standard chemotherapy alone, who had a median survival of 10.2 months. This difference is statistically significant. Detailed results from this trial will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (ASCO) to be held in Orlando, Fla., on May 13-17, 2005.

The results of this randomized study are exciting and reveal, for the first time, an improvement in survival with the addition of a targeted agent to standard chemotherapy in this patient population, says Study Chair Alan B. Sandler, M.D., of the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, Tenn.

NCI Director Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.says the study demonstrates that mechanistic-based interventions such as angiogenesis inhibitors are making important contributions in improving cancer outcomes and can be used in combination with standard therapies, to treat a variety of cancers, leading to improved patient survival. The study looked at a total of 878 patients with advanced non-squamous, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had not previously received systemic chemotherapy.

They were enrolled in the study between July 2001 and April 2004. Patients were randomized to one of the two treatment groups. One patient group received standard treatment - six cycles of paclitaxel and carboplatin. The second group received the same six-cycle chemotherapy regimen with the addition of bevacizumab, followed by bevacizumab alone until disease progression.

Patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung were not included in the study because previous clinical experience suggested that patients with this particular type of NSCLC had a higher risk of serious bleeding from the lung after bevacizumab therapy. Patients with a prior history of coughing up blood were also not enrolled on the trial.

Life-threatening or fatal bleeding, primarily from the lungs was the most significant adverse event observed in the study Though infrequent, it was more common in the patient group that received bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy than in the patient group that received only chemotherapy. A full description of side effects observed in this trial will be presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting in May.

Bevacizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody, is designed to bind to and inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF is a protein that plays a critical role in tumor angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels to the tumor.

James H. Doroshow, M.D., director of NCI’s Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis and leader of NCI’s Clinical Trials Working Group says the trial represents another step in a series of recent important advances in treatment for patients with advanced lung cancer, and important progress continues to be made by targeting molecular pathways critical to the growth and survival of cancer cells. Better understanding of these molecular processes will lead to significant advances in the treatment of cancer.

An estimated 172,570 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States in 2005. Lung cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in this country. An estimated 163,510 deaths from lung cancer will occur in 2005 in the United States, accounting for about 29 percent of all cancer-related deaths in the nation.