A national clinical trial was initiated on October 1st to see if biomarkers can be useful tools in the treatment of lung cancer. Biomarkers are molecules that indicate an abnormal process or disease is taking place in the body.

In this study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, biomarkers will look specifically for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). It appears frequently in some lung cancers that contain extra copies of its coding gene. These redundancies can encourage the activation of tumor growth, so blocking the gene could significantly aid in lung cancer treatment.

The study, known as MARVEL (Marker Validation for Erlotinib in Lung Cancer), will try to evaluate the benefit of selecting treatments for patients based on the presence or absence of the biomarker.

Lung Cancer is Number One
Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the U.S. This year alone, about 215,020 people will be diagnosed with the disease, and 161,840 will die. EGFR appears in non-small cell lung cancer, which represents approximately 85-90 percent of all lung cancers.

Nearly 1200 people will be tested to see if they have the biomarker, and then they’ll be randomly given a cancer treatment regimen of either erlotinib (Tarceva from Genentech) or pemetrexed (Alimta from Eli Lilly) after receiving standard chemotherapy. Because erlotinib works by specifically targeting EGFR, it is expected to be more effective in treating patients who have the receptor. Pemetrexed was shown to be superior in patients with EGFR-negative cancer in a previous, more limited study.

Erlotinib and pemetrexed are both approved treatments for advanced lung cancer stages. Other indicators that predict the effectiveness of erlotinib include cell classification, gender, ethnicity and if the patient was ever a smoker. At this time, no studies are available to determine to what degree each of these factors may play a role in responsiveness to the drugs.

For further information and to obtain the press release online, click here.

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If you've been diagnosed with lung cancer and looking for books about lung cancer, see Your Guide to Lung Cancer.