Yesterday evening, Genentech released results of a midstage clinical test of its colorectal cancer drug Avastin in combination with chemotherapy.
Separately, Genentech revealed that Avastin in combination with chemotherapy extended colon cancer patients' lives by five months in a trial of 900 patients.
At the meeting Sunday, researchers from Europe are releasing new analysis of an old 1, 200-patient study testing Erbitux as initial treatment in combination with chemotherapy.
Genasense, which is used in combination with chemotherapy, works by targeting a key "cell suicide" gene called bcl-2 and then inducing cancer cells to kill themselves.
Genentech's Avastin is awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval after a successful phase-III clinical trial that demonstrated its effectiveness in combination with chemotherapy for treating colorectal cancer.
But Vectibix has had trouble getting traction, while Erbitux is a blockbuster, in part because Vectibix is not approved to be used in combination with chemotherapy like Erbitux.
Mark Levin , Millennium's CEO, has said that Velcade could eventually become a blockbuster, but only after new data come in on using the drug in combination with chemotherapy for more common cancers.
Glyn Edwards, Antisoma's chief executive officer, said they hoped to complete Phase 1 testing the drug alone and start Phase 1b studies using it in combination with chemotherapy by the end of next year.
In the first stage of a phase III study called CLL11, the drug in combination with chemotherapy significantly reduced the risk of disease worsening or death compared to chemotherapy alone in previously untreated patients.
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Tarceva was once seen as a mere follow-on to a similar pill, Iressa, from AstraZeneca (nyse: AZN - news - people )But then both Iressa and Tarceva failed to work in combination with chemotherapy.
In stark contrast to ImClone, which rashly tested Erbitux in only 120 patients with no control group, AstraZeneca enrolled 2, 000 patients in late-stage trials to compare how long patients survive on a combination of chemotherapy and Iressa versus chemo and a placebo.
At the May cancer conference Genentech was expected to unveil second-stage trial results showing that its antibody in combination with chemotherapy delayed the growth of colon tumors for up to four months compared to chemo alone, and added months to patients' lives.
International trials show that adding Eloxatin to the standard chemotherapy combination helps reduce the risk of relapse after surgery by 25%.
The company didn't release full results of a 900-patient study testing Avastin against a placebo in combination with several chemotherapy regimens.
And now, the drug, in combination with the chemotherapy Taxol, allows patients with early-stage breast cancer an average of four months without their disease progressing.
That study had tested Avastin in combination with three chemotherapy drugs.
Taxol is used during chemotherapy in combination with other drugs in order to destroy cancer cells.
The world's first patient trial is using a drug combination of Thalidomide and chemotherapy to treat small cell lung cancer, the most deadly form of lung cancer.
They are also conducting a study comparing their medicine combined with chemotherapy versus a combination of Avastin, panitumumab and chemo.
Clinical trials have suggested the combination of the drug and chemotherapy can increase patient's chances of a cure and may live longer than if they received chemotherapy alone.
Some patients who were not helped by Velcade alone seemed to respond to a combination of the drug and traditional chemotherapy.
Patients on a combination of Abraxane and gemcitabine, another chemotherapy, lived for a median 8.5 months, compared to 6.7 months for those that received gemcitabine alone.
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"At this point, the cancer was highly treatable and a combination of surgery and either radiotherapy or chemotherapy could in all likelihood have extended his lifespan, " he said.
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