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· Lung Cancer
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Alimta, Zactima extend survival but cure remains out of reach, studies show
Jump to full article: HealthDay [HealthScout], 2009-05-30
Author: Amanda Gardner HealthDay Reporter
Intro: Certain drugs offer incremental yet significant improvements in pushing back advanced lung cancer.
That's the conclusion of studies presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Orlando, Fla.
Lung cancer remains America's leading cancer killer, and "significant" improvements in time-to-disease recurrence and survival are measured in weeks and months, not years, experts stress.
The benefits from any drug also vary from patient to patient. "Some patients are benefiting much more and some much less," noted Dr. Roy Herbst, chief of thoracic medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and lead author of one of the studies presented at the meeting.
In data presented at an ASCO news conference Saturday, researchers found that the drug Alimta (pemetrexed) prolonged survival by almost three months in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the deadliest form of the disease. This
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