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| |  Thalidomide Does Not Improve Survival in Small Cell Lung Cancer BETHESDA, Md -- July 16, 2009 -- Treating patients with thalidomide in combination with chemotherapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) does not improve their survival and increases their risk of blood clots, according to a study published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Siow Ming Lee, MD, Department of Oncology, University Hospital, London, United Kingdom, and colleagues randomly assigned 724 patients with SCLC to receive either a placebo or thalidomide 100 to 200 mg/day for up to 2 years. The researchers found no evidence of a survival difference between the 2 groups. The median overall survival for patients who received placebo was 10.5 months and for patients receiving thalidomide, it was 10.1 months. Patients treated with thalidomide, however, had higher risk of thrombotic events. “Together, these results suggest that targeting anti-angiogenesis in SCLC may not work as well as in multiple myeloma or colorectal cancer, perhaps because of differences in the angiogenic pathways involved in SCLC,” the authors wrote. In an accompanying editorial, Curzio Rüegg, MD, Division of Experimental Oncology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, and Solange Peters, MD, Clinical Oncology Service, University of Lausanne, noted that the study results, as well as similar, negative results from previous studies, should lead to a fresh look at the basic biology of SCLC and of the putative anti-angiogenic activity of thalidomide. “Rather than running from failure to failure, it may be more reasonable to go back to experimental work, including the development and analysis of transgenic SCLC models, to better understand SCLC biology and identify robust therapeutic targets,” they wrote. SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute
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