CHICAGO — New drugs are making a dent against some hard-to-treat cancers, but some results raise questions about whether the benefit is worth the cost.
For the first time in a decade, an experimental drug has extended the lives of patients with advanced lung cancer who relapsed after standard chemotherapy. But the drug used in the study gave patients just six extra weeks of life on average, and costs $6,000 per infusion as currently sold to treat a different form of cancer.
Eli Lilly and Co.’s drug, Cyramza, was discussed Saturday at a cancer conference in Chicago.
Cyramza is sold now to treat stomach cancer and fights the formation of blood vessels that feed tumors. French researchers led a study with 1,253 patients who relapsed after initial treatment of advanced lung cancer, a more common disease.
All were given the chemo drug docetaxel and half also received Cyramza infusions every three weeks. Median overall survival was 10½ months for those on the combo and nine months for the others; there were significantly more side effects with the combo.
“I don’t think a six-week increment is that impressive” for survival, said Dr. Derek Raghavan, president of the Levine Cancer Institute at Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, N.C.
Other were more positive. “It’s exciting to see progress in this disease where the steps are small but cumulative,” said Dr. Gregory Masters of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center in Newark, Del.
Other studies showed:
• The drug Imbruvica, sold by Pharmacyclics Inc. and Janssen Biotech, substantially improved survival and could set a new standard of care for relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, the most common leukemia in adults. Doctors say the pill more precisely targets cancer and is a good option for older people who can’t tolerate standard chemotherapy infusions.
• Two experimental pills from AstraZeneca PLC worked much better than one alone against ovarian cancer that resisted or came back after standard chemo. The drugs significantly prolonged the time women lived without their disease worsening.
