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Lung cancer – another step in the right direction

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Cancer specialists at the Australia and New Zealand joint scientific meeting for the Medical Oncology Group of Australia and the Faculty of Radiation Oncology, held in Christchurch NZ were today treated to some positive news in the fight against lung cancer.

There has long been therapeutic nehalism regarding the treatment of lung cancer. Delegates at the conference saw excellent presentations which highlighted the emerging role of targeted therapies combined with chemotherapy for the treatment of lung cancer.

Dr Arlene Chan, medical oncologist at the Mount Hospital Perth presented data from the AVADO trial.

AVADO recruited 736 patients from 106 sites in 24 countries. Patients were randomized into one of three arms, to receive three times per week either docetaxel 100mg/m2 plus placebo; or docetaxel 100mg/m2 plus 7.5 mg/kg bevacizumab; or docetaxel 100mg/mg2 plus bevacizumab 15mg/kg.

The primary aim of the study was to investigate lung cancer survival without disease progression. The median (middle) follow up time was 10.2 months.

Patient’s characteristics were evenly balanced in each of the treatment arms. Patients in the bevacizumab arms experienced the common side effects of diarrhoea, rash and hypertension (high blood pressure), but essentially, treatment in each of the arms was well tolerated.

The patient survival time without disease progression was statistically better in each of the bevacizumab arms. It was 0.79 in the docetaxel 100mg/m2 plus 7.5 mg/kg bevacizumab arm and 0.72 in the docetaxel 100mg/mg2 plus bevacizumab 15mg/kg arm.


The median survival time without disease progression was 8.0 months for docetaxel alone; 8.7 months for docetaxel 100mg/m2 plus 7.5 mg/kg bevacizumab arm; and 8.8 months for docetaxel 100mg/mg2 plus bevacizumab 15mg/kg. Overall the patient’s response rates to treatment was 44%, 55% and 63% respectively. One year survival data so far is 73%, 78% and 83% respectively.

All of the assembled oncologists will await further promising results with bated breath.


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Dates

Posted On: 7 August, 2008
Modified On: 16 January, 2014

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