FDA approves Drug for Maintenance Therapy in Advanced NSCLC

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. announced Monday that the Food and Drug Administration have okayed a new use for its cancer treatment Alimta.

Alimta, which hinders the required absorption by certain tumors of B-vitamin folate, is newly approved for people whose tumor has shrunk or whose cancer has stabilized after chemotherapy.

The findings of the worldwide, multi-center double-blind clinical test were presented in Orlando by Chandra Belani, M.D., Miriam Beckner distinguished professor of medicine and deputy director of Penn State Cancer Institute at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

NSCLC is the most common form of lung cancer, resulting in more than 180 thousand new cases annually in the United States.

Generally patients with advanced, or metastatic, lung cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are treated with four to six rounds of chemotherapy, and then treatment is stopped in patients whose tumors either stop growing or shrink

read more at http://www.efitnessnow.com/news/2009/07/06/fda-approves-drug-for-maintenance-therapy-in-advanced-nsclc/