A report presented at the recent 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) announced that the chemotherapy combination consisting of Alimta (pemetrexed) plus a platinum compound (Platinol® [cisplatin] or Paraplatin® [carboplatin]) has been confirmed as “an active therapeutic regimen in the treatment of patients with previously untreated malignant pleural mesothelioma.”

Those presenting the report cited the Phase III study of the drug, which involved 448 patients from 19 countries and was the largest study of mesothelioma patients to date. The study, which compared the use of Alimta and Platinol to the use of Platinol alone, concluded that the combination of drugs “significantly improved survival, response rate, and median time to progression.”

Following the success of the Phase III trial, the drug was released on an expanded access program. The program, which involved 745 patients and combined Alimta with either Platinol or Paraplatin, produced the following results, which were reported at the ASCO meeting:

• At one year, survival was approximately 64% for both treatment groups.
• The median time to cancer progression was approximately seven months for both treatment groups.
• Overall, partial response rates were 26.3% for patients treated with Alimta/Platinol and 21.6% for those treated with Alimta/Paraplatin.
• Partial responses plus stable disease occurred in 77.7% of patients receiving Alimta/Platinol and 75.8% of those receiving Alimta/Paraplatin.
• Severe thrombocytopenia, anemia, neutropenia and leucopenia occurred more frequently among patients treated with Alimta/Paraplatin than those treated with Alimta/Platinol.

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