Roche's Xeloda sees strong Ph III data

Swiss drug major Roche says that results from the largest-ever Phase III study in advanced esophagogastric cancer, were presented at the American Society of Clincial Oncology's annual meeting, held in Atlanta, Georgia, showing that its anticancer drug Xeloda (capecitabine) can replace 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin can replace cisplatin for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced forms of the disease.

The standard treatment for this disease in the UK and much of Europe is the combination of epirubicin, cisplatin and 5-FU, which is known as ECF. In addition, the trial showed that patients treated with the combination of Xeloda plus oxaliplatin and epirubicin, known as EOX, live significantly longer than patients treated with standard ECF chemotherapy.

The study investigators noted that ECF is administered to patients via an infusion pump connected to their arm, in a procedure that lasts all day and night, every day of the week, for the entire duration of treatment, but oral Xeloda frees the patient from this schedule.