New hopes for treating lung cancer

A combo treatment has shown promising results in safely slowing down the pace of advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the most common of all lung tumors. Previous studies had reported bevacizumab (Avastin) and erlotinib (Tarceva) as effective medications in blocking the tumor growth in non-small cell lung cancer. A new study, however, showed adding erlotinib to maintenance therapy with bevacizumab in patients with advance lung cancer is more effective than bevacizumab alone in slowing the progression of the disease. Maintenance therapy, a new concept in cancer care, is given after standard chemotherapy with the aim of continuing some portion of the treatment to help stave off a possible recurrence in the patient weakened by the chemotherapy treatments. According to the study presented at the 45th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a combination of erlotinib and bevacizumab as maintenance therapy delays the progression of the disease in patients who have already received bevacizumab as part of their initial chemotherapy by 29 percent. Patients on the combo therapy were reported not only to survive more but also to tolerate the drugs better. Scientists concluded that adding erlotinib to maintenance therapy prolongs progression-free survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.