Source: DGNews | Posted 1 year ago
Lung Cancer Survival Rates Improved Through Use of Individualised Chemotherapy
WASHINGTON, DC -- September 1, 2010 -- Chemotherapy is the best broad defense against cancer recurrence after surgical resection. However, it is difficult to predict which patients will benefit from which regimen of anticancer drugs, if at all. Building on existing knowledge, a study published in the September edition of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, analysed the usefulness of adjuvant chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) based on the histoculture drug response assay (HDRA).
After 7 years of study, researchers concluded that the use of adjuvant (post-operative) chemotherapy based on results of the in vitro HDRA improved the survival and prognosis of patients with NSCLC who had undergone surgery and whose results of the HDRA assay showed chemosensitivity to the specific drugs used for treatment.
The patients’ chemosensitivity to cisplatin, carboplatin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine and irinotecan were examined by the HDRA assay.
The patients in the study were then split into 2 groups: (1) those whose tumours were sensitive to at least 2 of the HDRA drugs and received 2 HDRA positive drugs per chemotherapy session (n = 31), and (2) those whose tumours were sensitive to 1 or none of the HDRA drugs and were treated with a combination of 1 HDRA positive drug, and 1 HDRA negative or 2 HDRA negative drugs per chemotherapy session (n = 34).
The overall 5-year survival rate for the prediction sensitive group given 2 HDRA positive drugs was 82.4%. In contrast, the 5-year survival rate for the patients whose tumours indicated a low sensitivity or no sensitivity to the HDRA drugs and received 1 HDRA positive drug and 1 HDRA negative or 2 HDRA negative drugs was 40.1%.
In addition, the rate of relapse was lower for the patients in the prediction sensitive group. Relapse occurred in 29% of patients who were given 2 HDRA positive drugs per chemotherapy session while it occurred in 55.8% of patients who underwent the other treatment.
“Our research concluded that the HDRA assay seems to be useful for the selection of anticancer drugs in chemotherapy,” the authors wrote, adding that further research into this treatment option.
SOURCE: International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
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