Tarceva improves survival in pancreatic cancer

Roche, Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals announced Monday the results of a late-phase clinical trial suggesting that treatment with Tarceva in combination with a chemotherapy regimen improves the overall survival of patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer, news sources report.

The new study showed that patients with pancreatic cancer receiving Tarceva in combination with gemcitabine, sold by Eli Lilly as Gemzar, had a 23.5 percent improvement in overall survival compared with patients treated with gemcitabine and placebo. Furthermore, median and one-year survival in the Tarceva group was 6.4 months and 25.6 percent, as compared to 5.9 months and 19.7 percent in patients treated with gemcitabine alone, reports news sources. Tarceva is being co-developed by Roche’s U.S. unit Genentech, and OSI. The drug had previously been demonstrated to extend survival of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer and is currently waiting marketing approval in the US and Europe for that indication. The investment banking firm Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein noted to clients that, ‘The potential for Tarceva, now proven to improve survival in lung cancer and pancreatic cancer, may hold promise in different tumors and with different chemotherapy regimes,’ as reported in Newsday. Denise Anderson of Kepler Equities predicts Tarceva could be on the market in Europe in 2006 as a treatment for pancreatic cancer, and is likely to be a future growth driver for Roche, as long as other indications are sought by the drugmakers, reports the SwissInfo. Early-stage trials are currently underway for Tarceva in the treatment of other solid tumors, including ovarian, colorectal, head and neck, renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal cancers.