Combination of "smart drugs" may work for bronchioalveolar carcinoma.

2003 JUL 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new study suggests the combination of two new "smart drugs" may be effective in treating bronchioalveolar carcinoma (BAC), a type of non-small cell lung cancer generally considered resistant to chemotherapy.

Researchers from University of California, Davis, Cancer Center reported the finding at the American Society for Clinical Oncology annual meeting held in June 2003.

About 3% of all lung cancer patients have pure BAC tumors, and about 20% of all non-small cell lung cancers possess some BAC features. Unlike most lung cancers, BAC occurs more frequently in women than in men, and more frequently in non smokers than in smokers. It appears to be increasing in incidence. Patients with BAC generally live longer than those with more common non-small cell lung cancers, but BAC tumors are usually too diffuse for surgery and unresponsive to existing chemotherapeutic agents.

The finding "is an important breakthrough," said Paul Gumerlock, associate professor of hematology and oncology at UC Davis Cancer Center and an author of the study. "It suggests a combination of drugs that block EGFR expression with drugs that block HER2 expression may have potent activity against a previously untreatable form of lung cancer."

The drugs Iressa (AstraZeneca) and Tarceva (Genentech) are examples of EGFR blockers; Herceptin (Genentech) was the first HER2 blocker to ...