New approaches in lung cancer
pharmafile | January 1, 2010 | Feature | Sales and Marketing |Â Â lung cancerÂ
Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, with 1.3 million new cases diagnosed every year.
The vast majority of lung cancers are caused by cigarette smoking, an it has been estimated that the lifetime risk of developing lung cancer is 1 in 14 for men and 1 in 21 for women in the UK.
Lung cancer is typically not diagnosed until it well advanced, and usually inoperable. Until recently, chemotherapy represented the only drug option for patients seeking to extend their lives, but the arrival of molecular-targetting drugs has advanced treatment in recent years.
Roche’s Tarceva (erlotinib) is the most successful of these new agents in treating lung cancer. It is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, which acts on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).
New molecular targets mean that lung cancer is now being understood as a condition which has many sub-groups and types.
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) accounts for around 80% of cases, and is itself composed of numerous different subtypes – squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma.
New next-generation targeted treatment for NSCLC are now emerging across the industry’s pipelines.
One drug which has produced spectacular results in a sub-group of patients is Pfizer’s crizotinib.
The drug is in a new class of drugs that inhibit the ALK gene, which is thought to play a key role in a sub-set of non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumours.
Crizotinib produced a 90% response rate in NSCLC patients whose tumours had a rearrangement of the ALK gene, and who had failed two previous chemotherapies.
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