Extending Chemotherapy Improves Control Of Lung Cancer
Main Category: Lung CancerAlso Included In: Respiratory / Asthma; Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 18 Nov 2008 - 3:00 PDT
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A new Australian study has found that extending the use of chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer better controls the disease, as well as providing a modest improvement in survival. The study will be reported today (18/11) to the Clinical Oncolgoical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting in Sydney.
Associate Professor Michael Boyer, from the Sydney Cancer Centre, said a meta-analysis of international randomised trials showed a significant improvement in progression free survival and a modest improvement in overall survival in patients given extended 3rd generation chemotherapy.
"One of the big questions we are trying to answer is: What is the optimal duration of chemotherapy for maximising survival and quality of life?" Professor Boyer said. "While this doesn't answer that question, it does tell us that there is a clear benefit to continuing chemotherapy if it is controlling the cancer and not causing bad side-effects.
"Unfortunately, there is a downside in terms of more adverse events and impaired quality of life. This demonstrates the need for future trials to test extending treatment with more effective and better tolerated agents."
Presentation: 4.15pm, Room 103
Australia's leading meeting of cancer experts
Clinical Oncological Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting
Sydney Convention Centre - November 18-20, 2008
Source
Cancer Council, Australia
http://www.cancer.org.au
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15 Feb. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/129752.php>
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http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/129752.php.
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Visitor Opinions In Chronological Order (1)
Surrogate Endpoints
posted by Gregory D. Pawelski on 18 Nov 2008 at 1:18 pmSurrogate endpoints may give patients the feeling that progress is being made, but in reality they are both transient and of dubious significance. Tumor shrinkage on its own isn't necessarily a good reason to use a drug, because it is entirely possible to shrink a tumor without really helping the patient.
Tumor shrinkage is a very poor surrogate for those with more important goals, like living better and longer. Having harder evidence, like survival data, is more meaningful.
What happens when the tumor shrinks but the patient's health is undermined by the toxicity of the treatment, even dying of treatment-related causes rather than as a direct result of the cancer? Or when the disease may accelerate more rapidly by mutation, after a progression-free period.
Improved overall survival is the only real criterion of success for a treatment. And we must inquire carefully into the quality of life during the period of prolonged survival. In the midst of the battle against cancer, you don't want to lose sight of the overall war.
Many new drugs cry out for validated clinical biomarkers as pharmacodynamic endpoints and with the ability to measure multiple parameters in cellular screens to help set dosage and select people likely to respond (clinical responders).
You need to measure the net effect of all processes, not just individual surrogate endpoints.
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