Drug improves survival in lung cancer patients
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
NEW ORLEANS — An experimental drug, part of a new generation of "targeted therapies," improves survival for patients with advanced, hard-to-treat lung cancer by more than 40%, researchers announced Saturday.
Scientists are hailing the news about Tarceva, announced at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans, as an important advance in cancer therapy.
Tarceva did not cure anyone.
But in an international clinical trial of more than 700 patients, scientists found that those who took Tarceva survived an average of 6.7 months, while those who received a placebo lived 4.7 months, according to the study, presented by Frances A. Shepherd, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either Tarceva or a sugar pill, and neither patients nor their doctors knew who was getting the real drug.
Article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-06-05-tarceva_x.htm