Lilly drug helps lung cancer patients live longer

By Bill Berkrot

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The use of Eli Lilly and Co's Alimta following successful chemotherapy treatment helped patients with advanced lung cancer live significantly longer, according to data released on Saturday.

The study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Orlando, Florida, also confirmed that the benefit from Alimta is primarily limited to the more common nonsquamous type of non-small cell lung cancer.

Patients in the study with that type of cancer who were treated with Alimta as a so-called maintenance therapy lived more than five months longer than those who got a placebo.

"This should become the standard of care," Dr. Chandra Belani, deputy director of the Penn State Cancer Institute and the study's lead investigator, said in an interview.

"This is the first time that there is a benefit of five months in nonsquamous patients. As the cumulative toxicity is minimal it can be given for a prolonged duration of time," Belani said.

Alimta, known chemically as pemetrexed, is approved for use in combination with chemotherapy as an initial treatment for advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. Approval as a maintenance therapy -- to delay worsening of the disease after chemotherapy has stalled tumor growth -- would add a lucrative new revenue source for the medicine.

Alimta had sales of $1.15 billion in 2008.

"This is the next step in the overall management (of the disease)," Belani said.