Xalkori to Treat ROS1-Mutated Lung Cancer Patients?

Xalkori for advanced lung cancer shrunk tumors in those with a rare genetic mutation, according to a study that may provide the first targeted treatment for these patients.

Xalkori reduced the size of tumors in 36 of 50 patients in the study while halting tumor growth in another nine, according to company-funded research released today at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Madrid and online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

About 15,000 people, or 1 percent of the estimated 1.5 million annual new cases of non-small-cell lung cancer, have an abnormality to the ROS1 gene, according to New York-based Pfizer. Today’s findings also showed that Xalkori was effective for about 18 months in patients, longer than the average eight to 12 months seen for some other targeted treatments, said Alice Shaw, a lead study author.

“We’re seeing much longer durations of remissions,” Shaw, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a telephone interview. “This points to being a very good target in lung cancer and this drug being a very effective targeted therapy for these patients.”

Report of Bloomberg News: http://bloom.bg/1rxDE7G