New Phase II trial shows combination treatment with selumetinib (AstraZeneca) has promise for patients with NSCLC

A new Phase II study finds that the combination of selumetinib, from AstraZeneca, and docetaxel, was more effective than docetaxel chemotherapy alone for patients with a form of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) that carries a mutation in the gene KRAS - representing about 20 percent of all NSCLC cases. Previously, no targeted agent had proven beneficial in a trial involving patients with this type of NSCLC. The 87 patients who participated in the trial had advanced, KRAS-mutant NSCLC that had failed initial chemotherapy and received either selumetinib and the chemotherapy agent docetaxel or docetaxel alone.

Investigators found that while 37 percent of the patients in the selumetinib group experienced some shrinkage of their tumor, none of the patients in the docetaxel-only group did. Of particular significance, patients receiving selumetinib lived a median of 5.3 months before their cancer began to worsen, compared to 2.1 months for those receiving chemotherapy alone. (Patients in the selumetinib group also survived longer, on average, than those in the docetaxel group � 9.4 months compared to 5.2 months � but the improvement was not considered statistically significant.) Results were published in the The Lancet Oncology. See: "Selumetinib plus docetaxel for KRAS-mutant advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a randomised, multicentre, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study." Dr Pasi A J�nne et al. The Lancet Oncology, 28 November 2012 doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(12)70489-8