The experimental drug rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) has displayed safety and efficacy in the treatment of small cell lung cancer in a human clinical trial. The results of the trial were presented Monday at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago.
The clinical trial included 74 SCLC patients whose cancer had progressed after at least one course of treatment. Of the 60 study participants treated with Rova-T doses in the active range of 0.2 to 0.4 mg/kg, 68 percent achieved disease stabilization and 18 percent experienced confirmed reductions in tumor sized.
"The goal is always to give the right patient the right drug at the right time, but patients with advanced small cell lung cancer have not benefited from any of the new targeted therapies available to patients with other types of cancer," said Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD, chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
SCLC is aggressive and accounts for about 15 percent of all instances of lung cancer. Two-thirds of SCLC patients are found to have extensive stages of the disease upon diagnosis. The survival rate for these patients is typically less than one year.
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