Mesothelioma drug deemed not as useful for head and neck cancer | Mesothelioma News

Mesothelioma.com News — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has been promoting the drug Alimta® for the treatment of lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the organs known as mesothelium. However, Alimta®, which is generally used in combination with chemotherapy, has not proven as successful in the treatment of head and neck cancer. According to data presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress, Alimta® did not improve overall survival of head and neck patients.

Alimta’s® success in treating lung cancer and mesothelioma may be due to the general location of the cancer, namely the chest and abdomen. The aforementioned cancers tend to centralize around the lungs, as is the case with pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. Dr. Susan Urba of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, who led Phase III of the head and neck trial, said the result was disappointing but not surprising.

In the trial, patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer were given a combination of Alimta® and Cisplatin®, a platinum-based chemotherapy. The results showed a median overall survival of 7.3 months compared with 6.3 months for those on Cisplatin® alone, a difference that is not considered statistically significant.

Although Alimta’s® sales totaled $1.7 billion last year, Eli Lilly said in a statement that it no longer planned to seek U.S. or European marketing approval for Alimta® as a treatment for head and neck cancer.

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Information » Alimta

Mesothelioma drug deemed not as useful for head and neck cancer | Mesothelioma News

Mesothelioma Treatment Alert: Developer of mesothelioma drug Alimta® reflects on how the drug radically changed mesothelioma treatment