Small-cell lung cancer is a disease which follows an extremely aggressive course but, paradoxically, is much more responsive to chemotherapy than other types of lung cancer. Modern combination chemotherapy has greatly improved survival but, despite this, patients generally relapse and succumb to the disease because of the high tendency of the cancer to metastasize.
Now, two new agents are starting to show activity in SCLC, and they may provide desperately-needed second-line treatment options. Andrea Ardizzoni of the National Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa, Italy, commented at the European Cancer Conference in Paris, France, last week, that response rates for current second-line single-agent SCLC therapies do not exceed 30%, with an average response duration of less than three months. The only trial showing a response rate as high as 30% was with teniposide, but this study was performed in the early 1980s, when the criteria for determining responses to therapy were less stringent.
Results With SB's Topotecan On behalf of researchers from the European Organization for Cancer and Treatment of Cancer, Dr Ardizzoni presented results of a Phase II trial with SmithKline Beecham's topoisomerase I inhibitor topotecan in patients with previously-treated SCLC, which revealed response rates of up to 39% and an average duration of response which was almost twice that which has been reported with standard therapy.
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