� A combination of chemotherapy agents that sustain been tried in other tumor types appears to be a promising alternative to standard treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to a report in the August 15 number of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
In a phase II multicenter study of 56 patients with an advanced form of this common lung cancer, endpoints including response rate, progression-free survival, and overall natural selection from use of S-1 and irinotecan were similar to, or better than, those reported from standard treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy regimens.
Because the study had only a exclusive arm - meaning all patients received the experimental therapy - the researchers cannot enunciate if this regimen offers more benefit than standard treatment. But they did report that side personal effects resulting from the data-based therapy appeared to be much less severe than those typically seen with standard treatment.
"There continues to be reluctance on the constituent of both patients and treating physicians to accept the toxicity of platinum-based therapy, given the associated small profit in selection, so active therapies with improved toxicity profiles are clearly requisite," said the study's track investigator, Isamu Okamoto, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Kinki University School of Medicine in Osaka, Japan.
Okamoto says that a lead comparison 'tween this experimental regimen and platinum-based "doublet" chemotherapy should be conducted to confirm what appears to be a survival benefit among patients world Health Organization used S-1 and irinotecan.
S-1 (as well known as TS-1) is approved for use in Japan and Korea, where it has shown hearty benefit in treating stomachal cancer, only is silent in clinical trials in other countries, including the U.S. and Europe.
The multifaceted agent, which is available in capsule signifier, has three different mechanisms of action. One part breaks down into active fluorouracil (5-FU) once it is in the torso. 5-FU is a chemotherapy drug a great deal used to treat colorectal and other cancers.
Another part of S-1 keeps 5-FU production at a steady horizontal surface and a third portion is designed to counteract 5-FU's toxic effects, such as
